POLITICO: Le Maire: Up to Britain to find a way through Brexit impasse

25 January 2019

It is "clearly on the shoulders of the British government" to secure a stable Brexit deal, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, insisting that the EU has "nothing more to give" on the Withdrawal Agreement.

"Of course, we are always open to clarifications, but reopening the deal would mean weeks, months of new negotiations between the U.K. and the European member states, that’s exactly what we want to avoid," Le Maire told the BBC's Today program.

Warning that a no-deal Brexit would be "catastrophic" for Britain and would have "consequences" across the European Union, the French minister appeared to quash hopes among some British MPs that there could still be room to compromise over the Irish backstop — a guarantee of no hard border on the island in the absence of a broader trade deal.

"It's done," Le Maire said. "It's quite complicated." [...]

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