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France to accelerate preparations for no-deal Brexit: presidential source
PARIS, Jan 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – France is speeding up preparations for a
“no deal” Brexit after the British parliament overwhelmingly rejected the
agreement on the table, a French presidential source said Wednesday.
“The scenario we don’t want is a no deal and the risks multiplied
yesterday,” the source said.
“The prime minister will meet tomorrow with the key ministers concerned to
take stock of the preparations and accelerate them,” the source added.
Ministers had already scheduled a meeting to decide on France’s response
to the result of the British parliamentary vote.
France has like other European nations been preparing for a scenario in
which Britain crashes out of the EU with no divorce deal, and has already
been recruiting extra customs agents to be deployed in Channel ports.
French employers’ group MEDEF meanwhile called on the country’s businesses
to prepare for “the worst”.
“Yesterday’s vote piled uncertainty upon uncertainty,” its chief Geoffroy
Roux de Bezieux said.
Some 30,000 French companies export to Britain, according to the French
finance ministry, with goods worth some 31 billion euros ($35.4 billion) in
2017.
French lawmakers have since November been debating a bill dealing with the
Brexit fallout, which would potentially empower the government to issue
emergency decrees if needed.
France’s Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau said Wednesday that the EU could
extend the deadline for Brexit beyond March 29 if Britain made such a
request.
But she stressed that other EU nations considered the deal already on the
table to be “the only one possible”.
President Emmanuel Macron late Tuesday indicated there was a small chance
of only very minor tweaks being made to the agreement.
“Maybe we’ll make improvements on one or two things, but I don’t really
think so because we’ve reached the maximum of what we could do with the
deal,” he said.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1612 hrs