French minister repeats threat of veto as troubled negotiations restart in Brussels
France will back a trade deal allowing the UK to diverge from EU standards but the bloc should not be time-pressured into agreeing damaging terms in the final hours, France’s European affairs minister has said, as the Brexit negotiations restarted in Brussels.
Clément Beaune, a close ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, repeated the threat of a French veto amid divisions among the 27 member states over the necessity of a deal this year, but hinted at a compromise on the thorniest issue.