Minister says France may act unilaterally if terms not
right, as negotiations in London falter
Daniel
Boffey in Brussels
Fri 4 Dec
2020 09.04 GMT
France
could wield its veto to kill a Brexit deal brought back from London by the EU’s
chief negotiator, the country’s minister for European affairs has warned.
With the
negotiations hitting troubled waters at the 11th hour, Clément Beaune, a close
ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said his country could act
unilaterally if the terms were not right.
UK
government sources had claimed on Thursday evening that the Brexit negotiations
had taken a sudden step backwards after furious French lobbying pushed the EU
to make late demands.
The
apparent hardening of the EU position was said to have destabilised the
protracted talks, peeling back progress made over the previous 24 hours. Both
sides believe Sunday evening or Monday morning is the deadline for the
year-long negotiation.
Beaune said
his government was closely monitoring developments in London, where negotiators
have been working night and day to find common ground and would scrutinise any
agreement.
He said:
“This [no deal] risk exists. We mustn’t hide it because there are businesses,
our fishermen, citizens who need to know and so we must prepare for a risk of
no deal. That’s to say on 31 December there will be no more free circulation,
and free access to the UK market and vice versa.
“But it’s
not what we want and the negotiations are still going on with Michel Barnier,
who is in London at the moment. I still hope we can have a deal but I also say
to our fishermen, to our producers, to our citizens, that we won’t accept a bad
deal.”
He added:
“I think it’s also the case for our partners that if there were a deal that isn’t
good, which in our evaluation doesn’t correspond to those interests, we will
oppose it.
“Yes, each
country has a veto, so it’s possible. France like all its partners has the
means of a veto. We must make our own evaluation of course of this deal, that’s
normal. We owe that to the French people, we owe it to our fishermen, and to
other economic sectors.
“I want to
believe we will have a good deal, but to get a good deal you know it’s better
to be frank, and to say our interests We have been very clear, sometimes the
Brits a little less so, about our interests.”
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