“Britain wants to leave the European Union and not to pay for that? - it is impossible” said the President of France Francois Hollande at the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris. According to the French Leader EU has to keep its hard position towards Brexit, otherwise "the principles of EU will be questioned". He called “hard Brexit” the biggest crisis in European Union’s history.

Hollande said that “[w]e are living the crisis of the foundation of Europe. With the departure of one country, with deep divisions at the centre of the Union, with differences that become deeper, with the return of nationalism, the rise in populism it’s not just another crisis, it is the crisis.”

A so-called “hard Brexit” scenario would mean Britain leaving the European Single Market and the reduction of relations with the Union to simple trade agreements. Earlier, First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon demanded that the British government clarify its position regarding United Kingdom leaving the European Union, stating that “hard Brexit” would harm the UK economy.

However, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in her speech on Wednesday at the annual congress of the Conservatives in Birmingham, that the UK aims to reach an agreement in its negotiations with Brussels to would retain close ties with the EU. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davies said that the UK expects to keep trade ties with the EU after Brexit.

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