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France Not Bound to Sunday Brexit Deadline at Any Cost

  • Brexit is the biggest deal in the EU’s history, Beaune says
  • France doesn’t expect chaos in case talks fail as it is ready
U.K. and French flags at the European Parliament. 

U.K. and French flags at the European Parliament. 

Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg 

Corrected

France won’t try to get a Brexit deal through by Sunday at any cost as the parties are negotiating the biggest accord in the European Union’s history and such agreements are known to take many years of discussions, French European Affairs Junior Minister Clement Beaune said in an interview on France Inter radio on Saturday.

“It would be normal not to say, well it’s Sunday evening so let’s wrap it and sacrifice everything,” Beaune said. “It may be hard and sometimes tough to understand, but it’s necessary to take the time, and at any rate not to sacrifice our interests under the pressure of a calendar.”