We can spend our time bemoaning the uncertainty arising from Brexit. We can talk forever about missed opportunities. Or we can collectively decide, as Europeans and Britons, to pull ourselves together and act. And we need to act immediately.

This is what we have been doing for several months in the Hauts-de-France region, with the French government’s local administration, to ensure the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, as well as the Eurotunnel and airports, have 100 per cent fluidity on day one in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Yes, I would like to make it absolutely clear: our ports and the Eurotunnel will be ready, including in the event of a no deal. But we are in a bilateral relationship: Dover and the Eurotunnel in Folkestone also need to be ready, and British road infrastructure needs to adapt.

If a no‑deal Brexit is indeed a threat to cross-Channel trade, poor co‑ordination of our preparations could be damaging. This is why, in Lille, I recently brought together hundreds of businesses, from various European countries, to talk with British and French customs and civil servants. I want to protect jobs in France and the UK, but also in the rest of the EU: because cross-Channel trade matters for the whole of Europe.