"TOO IMPRECISE"
Sticking to his previous hard line on Brexit, Macron said he would not accept renegotiating the Withdrawal Agreement agreed between Johnson's predecessor and the bloc, and dropping the backstop.
"Why won't we accept it? It's simple: because what Boris Johnson suggests in his letter to President (Donald) Tusk is ... to chose between the integrity of the single market and respecting the Good Friday Agreement."
"We won't chose between the two. We won't jeopardise peace in Ireland, that would be one of the consequences of dropping the so-called backstop," he said.
Ireland says checks could undermine the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace after more than 3,600 died in a three-decade conflict between unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain British and Irish nationalists who want Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland ruled from Dublin.
"And we shall not accept that Europe becomes a sieve, that there shall be no more checks at the border ... just because Mr Johnson doesn't like (the backstop)," Macron added.
The French leader, who will be hosting Johnson for lunch on Thursday, said he expected the British prime minister to "clarify" his stance.
"We'll have to clarify many things. I think that, at this stage, what was articulated still remains too imprecise."
