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Time to agree a Brexit deal is running out and it will be too late for European leaders to iron out a deal at a European Council meeting in Brussels in mid-October, a French diplomatic source said on Thursday.
The French warning comes after president Emmanuel Macron met the Finnish prime minister in Paris on Wednesday.
“The idea was to say that time is running out and that we won’t be negotiating directly at the European Council in mid-October,” the source said.
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Finnish media cited prime minister Antti Rinne as saying he and Mr Macron had agreed an end-September deadline for British prime minister Boris Johnson to present Europe with a concrete proposal to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
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The source said this had been the message already conveyed by Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel last month.
After his meeting with Mr Macron at the Elysee palace on Wednesday, the Finnish premier said Britain has until end-September to explain how they will avoid crashing out of the EU, according to Finnish news agency STT.
“If there is no proposals – and I believe that quite a few European country leaders will agree with the position we reached with Macron today - then, it’s over,” Rinne was quoted as saying.
“We are a bit worried over what is happening at the moment in Britain and the mess which is created in Europe,” he added
Separately, two senior EU diplomats said there was no firm deadline of September 30th and no deadline has been discussed among the 27, but one added that there was a realisation that the end of September was as late as the UK could go to avoid a failure at the October 17th-18th summit.
“The 30th is not a precise date discussed and agreed by the 27. But these issues are not easy to tackle. If you want to prepare properly for the summit, the 30th of September is already tight,” the EU diplomat said.
“If you are too late the council will not be able to produce any meaningful results.” – Reuters