BRUSSELS • The European Union is freeing up €780 million (S$1.19 billion) in emergency funds to cope with the impact of a possible no-deal Brexit on member states.
Most of the money - nearly €600 million - will come from a disaster fund called the Emergency Solidarity Fund usually used to respond to natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.
The rest is to come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which helps workers made redundant by globalisation.
The contingencies were outlined in a European Commission statement on Wednesday as Britain descended deeper into political disarray because of ever-starker divisions over Brexit, particularly within the ruling Conservative Party.
EU officials detailed the breakdown of the money from the two funds while stressing that beyond the €780 million figure, more cash could be available to mitigate the effects of an abrupt Brexit from other funds, for instance, budgeted cash for fisheries and agriculture.
One official, speaking about the Emergency Solidarity Fund, said funding was made possible because of the relatively few natural disasters affecting the EU this year, leaving sufficient money in the pot.
But he emphasised that the Brexit purpose for the funding was a "one-off", designed to help businesses in affected EU states survive a Brexit blow, keep workers employed, and bolster border checks and hiring of Customs officers.
Among the EU countries expected to be most impacted by an abrupt no-deal Brexit are Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Denmark. Members with less economic heft, such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, would also be affected.
"We will ask the member states if they want to apply (for Brexit money from the fund) by a deadline, which will be at the end of April next year, when all the applications will be assessed as a package," the official said.
For nearly a year, EU policymakers have been readying emergency regulations that would seek to minimise the chaos from a no-deal Brexit. The measures would not fully avoid the pain, but they would help keep the planes in the air between the EU and Britain - something that would otherwise be in doubt.
Among some measures being put in place, France has hired an extra 700 Customs agents, and Belgium and the Netherlands have each hired hundreds more to conduct checks on goods coming from and going to Britain.
Some policies are still up for grabs. The previous British government had said it would be generous towards EU citizens who want to travel to Britain for business. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson's allies have suggested they could be far tougher about visas and other bureaucracy, unsettling businesses and raising the possibility of tit-for-tat reprisals from EU countries.
Leaders have tried to calm worries. But the sudden new border will be a major challenge. Small and medium-sized businesses will be especially hard hit, analysts say, as it makes little economic sense for a small company to hire someone to handle the consequences of a no-deal Brexit when it is still unclear whether that will happen.
Still, some doubt if any preparation can be truly adequate. Former British ambassador to the EU Ivan Rogers wrote in an essay published on Monday in The Spectator that both sides were missing the point.
The chaos unleashed by a no-deal Brexit on Nov 1 will just be the beginning, he wrote. "We should be thinking 10 to 20 years ahead, not 10 weeks."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, WASHINGTON POST
