Germany and France are starting to step up their preparations for a no-deal Brexit even though both publicly insist an agreement with the UK over its the terms of its departure from the European Union can still be achieved.
Angela Merkel revealed in Berlin for the first time on Wednesday that Germany was drawing up contingency plans, saying the government had started making “suitable preparations” for the possibility of Britain leaving with no accord.
While there was there was still a chance for a deal, it was “only fitting as a responsible and forward-thinking government leadership that we prepare for every scenario”, the German chancellor told MPs. “That includes the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without an agreement.”
France has published a draft bill that would allow the government to introduce new legal measures to avoid or mitigate the consequences of a hard Brexit by emergency decree, as opposed to parliamentary vote, within 12 months of the law being passed.
It said those consequences woulds include include Britons needing visas to visit and UK nationals living in the country being in an “irregular” legal situation.
Without emergency measures, British citizens living in France would become third-country nationals, the draft bill said, preventing them from holding jobs restricted to EU nationals and limiting their access to healthcare and welfare. Passenger travel and freight movements across the Channel would also be delayed.
They would be “obliged to present a visa to enter French territory and to hold a residence permit to remain there”, the bill’s preamble says. A no-deal Brexit would also mean “British citizens with a work contract under French law with a French employer could be asked for a document authorising them to work in France”. [...]
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