Financial Times: French region calls for EU help for no-deal Brexit

05 November 2018

The president of the French region closest to the UK has warned that a no-deal Brexit would bring much of northern Europe to its knees, as he called for more help from both Brussels and Paris to deal with the risk.

Xavier Bertrand, president of the Northern Hauts-de-France region, said that if the EU and London failed to reach agreement before Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit, the European Commission would need to soften rules on border checks, while the French government would have to provide more resources.

“It is not only the north of France that would be impacted by a no-deal but rather all of France and all of Europe,” Mr Bertrand told the Financial Times in an interview. “The trucks, companies and factories that will be blocked will be those of the north of France, the whole of France and Germany.” [...]

“If we have two minutes of extra customs controls for trucks, it will mean 27 kms of traffic jams on both sides and this will result in complete paralysis,” Mr Bertrand said. “This is one of the busiest commercial arteries in the world . . . We must do everything to avoid chaos.” [...]

Mr Bertrand argued that, with no certainty about what the repercussions of a no-deal would be, “we therefore need as much flexibility as possible at all levels to cope with the difficulties.”

He added: “For example, we could ask for exemptions from the European Commission to reduce customs and regulatory controls based on risk analysis.” [...]

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