Merkel Says No Official Language for Brexit Negotiations

(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wasn’t aware of there being an official language for the coming negotiations with the U.K. over leaving the European Union.

Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the EU’s chief Brexit negoitator, Michel Barnier, wanted the talks to be conducted in French rather than English.

“If I’m correctly informed, everybody is allowed to speak his own language,” Merkel told reporters in Brussels after an EU summit, when asked about the report. “Since Mr Barnier is a French citizen, it’s as little strange to me that he speaks French as it is that I speak German.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Brussels at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net.