France’s Europe minister can’t rule out no-deal in Brexit talks as she shrugs off UK’s ‘deadline pressure’

France’s Junior European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin warned on Friday that she could not rule out the European Union’s trade talks with ex-member Britain ending without a deal. “I am not ruling out anything,” the minister told Europe 1 radio, when asked if she could rule out a no-deal Brexit. However, she noted that “those who need a deal the most are the British.”

“They cannot withstand a second shock after the epidemic. They wouldn’t have access to the security net that is Europe, they wouldn’t have access to the stimulus fund,” she added.

British PM Boris Johnson told visiting French President Emmanuel Macron in London on Thursday that talks on a post-Brexit deal cannot drag on into the autumn.

“We will not yield to this deadline pressure, this final sprint that Britain want to impose on us in the hope we will cave in,” Montchalin said. “We do not want a deal for the sake of having a deal but we want a balanced deal.”