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Angela Merkel said it would be "easy" to reach an agreement with European leaders on a Brexit delay until the end of June, according to senior diplomatic sources.
Attitudes in some of the EU capitals towards a possible extension of Article 50 have recently become tougher, with diplomats complaining that London was "lazy" and taking a positive decision for granted .
But the German Chancellor said at the recent Euro-Arab summit in Sharm el-Sheikh that Berlin would not be an obstacle, sources told the Guardian.
Theresa May told the Commons Tuesday night, after losing 149 votes, the fourth all time defeat against a government motion, that if MPs voted to reject a Brexit without a deal on Wednesday, she would move a motion Thursday asking MPs they want to request an extension to Article 50.
She suggested that such an extension would be brief, but warned that it might create a new cliff in June, indicating that the British government is considering a three-month delay.
EU Heads of State and Government will discuss their conditions for extension at a forthcoming summit, if the Commons asks the Prime Minister to make a request.
During talks held last month in the Egyptian seaside resort on the Red Sea, Merkel reportedly insisted that an extension until the May 23 European elections would be "very easy". A longer deadline, until June 30, before the convocation of the Parliament, would be "easy", she added.
A spokesman for the German government declined to comment.
Despite Berlin's confidence in convincing the 27 heads of state and government, who should provide unanimous support once the request is made, the Brussels authorities fear that Downing Street's proposal to delay may take the form of a potential disaster. next week. a high risk that leaders may react unexpectedly.
Heads of state and government have repeatedly adopted a harsher line than planned with regard to the British government.
The categorical rejection of May's Checkers' proposals at a summit last year in Salzburg was the most notable embarrbadment for Downing Street.
Officials said that rather than trying to guide the leaders' decision at the summit, Brussels was preparing them for a free debate. "The more things are messy, the more likely it is that leaders will be seized," said an EU source.
EU officials said the "frustration" was growing in the face of the Prime Minister's reluctance to even set the stage for a request for an extension.
In a letter, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Donald Tusk, his counterpart at the European Council, said that the withdrawal of the United Kingdom should be completed before the European elections on May 23, British MEPs if not elected.
Officials representing Tusk told the ambbadadors Monday they believed that an extension until July was still possible, the European Parliament was not convened at that date.
Sources have suggested that the European Commission, as the "guardian of EU treaties", is simply laying the groundwork for a formal infringement notification against the United Kingdom if the government organizes no elections, but that May 23 was not the ultimate limit of an extension.
In Brussels, the biggest concern is that EU leaders can exclude any extension, unless there is an obvious reason not to simply delay an inevitable Brexit without agreement.
European sources have said that corporate pressure is likely to push leaders to extend by a few months, but European capitals were particularly concerned that by simply giving up Brussels they could be blamed for a Brexit without agreement. in summer.
Senior EU officials have warned the Member States that a very short extension would be "useless" and "would solve nothing" and would be a burden for businesses rather than a help.
"The EU's internal debate on the extension of Article 50 is becoming definitely more complicated," said Mujtaba Rahman of the Eurasia Group. "There is a growing sense that a short-term extension will not solve anything and that member states are more and more afraid of being complicit in accepting something that simply makes it more unlikely in June."
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