PARIS: One by one, European Union nations are spending millions, hiring thousands of workers and issuing emergency decrees to cope with the increasingly likely possibility that Britain will leave the bloc on March 29 without a plan . A no-deal Brexit would shake up the rest of the continent in ways that many Europeans haven't even fathomed.
France is spending 50 million euros ($57 million) to beef up security at airports and the Eurotunnel and hiring hundreds of extra customs officers. Portugal is opening special airport lanes for British travellers, the nation's main source of tourists. Germany is fast-tracking a debate on solving bureaucratic problems if there is no Brexit deal.
Governments from the Netherlands to Romania and the Czech Republic are preparing rules for British citizens to live and work in their countries once they no longer enjoy EU residency rights -and expecting that Britain is doing the same for their citizens. Britain, which would face by far the biggest disruption, has devoted thousands of civil servants and several billion pounds on measures to mitigate the worst effect - although officials can only speculate about what will actually happen on March 30 if Brexit happens without a deal.
"We strongly believe" Britain will leave with no exit deal, French PM Edouard Philippe announced on Thursday, unveiling a raft of emergency measures to cope with that prospect. The French government will hire nearly 600 extra customs officers and veterinary inspectors and invest in new infrastructure at airports and ports, all to be in working order by March 30.
In Berlin, German lawmakers debated a bill on Thursday that aims to solve bureaucratic issues arising from Brexit. "We want to keep the damage as small as possible," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. AP