Merkel says Europe wants orderly Brexit, is not looking at other scenarios
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Europe wants an orderly solution to Brexit and is not debating other options as Britain negotiates its withdrawal from the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.
“These negotiations will go on intensively and I am pleased by that because what we aim for is to have some orderly solution. We are not dealing with the other scenarios at the moment,” she told a news conference in Prague, alongside Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
European Council President Donald Tusk briefed European lawmakers this week that European Union leaders had agreed that they would meet again to endorse a deal if their negotiator Michel Barnier judged that enough progress had been made.
A meeting pencilled in for Nov. 17-18 is still on hold.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman said on Friday that technical talks on Britain’s departure from the EU were still going on and Brexit minister Dominic Raab would head to Brussels as soon as necessary.
Reporting by Robert Muller, Editing by Robin Pomeroy, Richard Balmforth
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