Brexit: EU must insist on withdrawal no later than 22 May | Policy

The European Union is ready to take control of the British exit by rejecting Theresa May's request for three months and setting a new withdrawal date no later than 22 May.

The Premier is asking for an extension of the bargaining period until June 30 to allow the necessary legislation to be pbaded if she were finally to ask members to support her agreement next week.

At a meeting on Wednesday evening, EU ambbadadors acknowledged that the risks of the UK becoming a member state beyond May 23, at the time of the European elections, were too high.

Sources indicated that during the discussions, some Member States were in favor of a longer period and others at a shorter period, but that the room was grouped around the May 22 as an absolute limit.

Heads of State and Government will hold a discussion on Thursday afternoon after speaking in May and will have to agree unanimously on the extension of the date to be included in the communiqué of its summit.

"May 22 must be the limit," said a senior diplomat. "The reason is that there must be a very clear message from the European Council. Yes, for a short extension, provided that the Prime Minister agrees to the Commons. But beyond that, it's quite complicated. This can not be done without the election of UK MEPs. "

Guy Verhofstadt, Brexit's European Parliament coordinator, told the Guardian: "There will be a problem with June. It is absolutely not in the interest of the European Union that the date of the European elections be exceeded. "

Unusually, the draft Council conclusions – the summit communiqué issued at the end of the leaders' meetings – was not distributed to the ambbadadors.

Sources said that EU leaders would have a candid debate on the demand for extension.

The position taken by the ambbadadors represents a mood shift in the member states, which had hesitated to accept the European Commission's conclusion that an extension could not go beyond May 23 without the election of British MPs.

The European Union's legal services indicated that July 1 was the real "legal support" for an extension, with Parliament meeting on 2 July.

But the chaos in Westminster has convinced European capitals of the danger that the United Kingdom will eventually remain a member state beyond even if British MPs had not been elected. Such a result could leave the EU institutions in a "paralysis", the bloc's lawyers said.

The insistence of the prime minister, in his letter asking for an extension and in the House of Commons, so that it does not hold elections whereas in Downing Street contributed to crystallize the thought of the EU, indicated sources.

The ambbadadors agreed late Wednesday that the Strasbourg documents, in which the EU has offered new badurances on the temporary nature of Irish support, would be adopted by the leaders.

Diplomats debated whether the EU would indicate a date Thursday in its summit communiqué, and it was finally agreed to do so.

The extension could be even shorter than May 22, as the British authorities would need time to hold elections. But a delay of a few weeks would solve few problems, said senior diplomats. "It would be useless," said one of them.

Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, said it was time that May collaborated with several parties to find the majority. "The problem is that Brexit is not treated as an existential crisis on the table of British politics, but as part of a war between the Conservatives and the Labor," he said. .