“We are now waiting for clarification from the UK side,” De Montchalin said. But De Montchalin, who replaces France’s former Europe minister Natalie Loiseau, now an MEP, said the bloc was not willing to reopen the 599-page exit agreement. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, claimed this weekend that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, would be willing to renegotiate the UK’s Brexit deal and possibly the Irish backstop. “Every single member state realises the importance of maintaining that unity and engaging with the UK through the the EU,” she said. “The problem is that there are almost as many kinds of Brexit as there are MPs.

Source: The Guardian June 11, 2019 05:00 UTC