EU leaders open to Brexit delay if May can push deal through
Credit to Author: ggaviola| Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:53:07 +0000
BRUSSELS – European Union leaders meeting for a Brexit summit are likely to grant Britain a short extension, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, if the U.K. government can win parliamentary support next week for its divorce deal.
But the early signs of that happening are not good. British Prime Minister Theresa May angered many legislators with a televised speech late Wednesday blaming Parliament for the Brexit impasse. One lawmaker slammed her remarks as “toxic.”
May has a tough day ahead as she arrives in Brussels to lobby her European partners to extend the Brexit date from March 29 until June 30 to push through the agreement she reached with the EU in November.
Her deal has already between twice rejected massively by the U.K. Parliament, and EU leaders are being asked to take the risk that May can convince the lawmakers next week.
That looked more uncertain after her speech on the eve of the summit, in which May told a Brexit-weary public: “You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side.”
She faced a backlash for her comments from lawmakers, including from some in her own Conservative Party.
Anna Soubry, of the breakaway Independent Group, described it in a tweet as the “most dishonest and divisive statement from any Prime Minister.” David Lammy of the opposition Labour Party called the speech “sinister,” while Conservative Sam Gyimah called her comments “toxic” and a “low blow.”
Top EU officials have said that May’s gambit is pushing the country to the brink of a catastrophic no-deal scenario, with huge political and economic implications for Britain and the European Union at large.
Merkel told German lawmakers Thursday that “we can comply in principle with this request if we were to have a positive vote next week on the withdrawal documents in the British Parliament.”
But she warned that the EU wants to ensure the legitimacy of the May 23-26 elections to the European Parliament. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the Britain should be out before May 23 or be obliged to take part in the Europe-wide vote.
The Europeans fear that citizens unable to vote could launch legal action at the European Court of Justice, or that businesses unhappy with legislation adopted by the new parliament might challenge its legitimacy.
Merkel vowed to work “until the last hour” to try and ensure that Britain doesn’t leave without a deal, even though her government has already put “the most important emergency measures” in place to deal with such a scenario just in case.
“We will, despite these measures we have taken, work until the last day — I will say until the last hour — to ensure that this emergency planning doesn’t come into effect,” she said. “We will do everything in the remaining, admittedly few, days to achieve an orderly, joint solution.”
Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaite, also believes the EU stands ready to take the risk.
The EU “will certainly be inclined to help (May) to talk to the U.K. Parliament,” she said, and that “we will definitely approve (an extension),” the Baltic News Agency said, citing Lithuanian radio.
Should May fail, EU leaders could be forced to meet again next week to weigh their next move, with a much longer extension a possibility.
In her statement Wednesday night, May didn’t accept a role in causing the deadlock, but warned that if lawmakers didn’t back her deal it would cause “irreparable damage to public trust.”
May said Parliament now faces a “final choice” between her deal, a no-deal departure and cancelling Brexit. /gsg