Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until June 30



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Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a new deadline for Brexit, until June 30th.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on April 12, and to date, no withdrawal agreement has been approved by MEPs.

The Prime Minister has proposed that if British MPs approve an agreement in time, the UK should be able to leave before the elections to the European Parliament on 23 May.

But she said that the UK would be preparing to present candidates for these elections in case no agreement is found.

It is up to the EU to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process by which the UK leaves the EU, after MEPs repeatedly rejected the 39, withdrawal agreement between the United Kingdom and the bloc.

A BBC official in charge of Europe, Katya Adler, told Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, that he will propose a "flexible" Brexit extension for a period of 12 months, with the Option to cut it short if the UK Parliament ratifies an agreement.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources have called Mr Tusk's proposal a "test balloon". clumsy".

The Prime Minister has written to Mr Tusk to ask for the extension of the next EU summit on April 10, during which EU leaders should agree to the following. unanimously on any plan to delay the departure of the United Kingdom.

Copy of Theresa May's letter

Prime Minister has written another letter "Dear Donald" to the President of the European Council

Ms. May has already requested an extension until the end of June, but this one was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, he was offered a brief deadline until April 12 – the date on which the UK must say he intends to participate in the European Parliament elections – or until May 22 if British MPs had approved the negotiated withdrawal agreement with the EU. They voted for the third time last week.

A spokesman for Downing Street said that there were "different circumstances" and that the prime minister "was clear that she was seeking a short extension".

The date of June 30 is significant.

It is the eve of the first session of the new European Parliament. The logic is that this would leave the UK a little longer to seal an agreement – but without the need for UK MEPs to sit in a parliament that the British electorate had decided to leave as early as 2016.

But, being Theresa May, it's a plan she's already proposed – and that's already been rejected.

It is likely that the EU will reject it again and propose a longer extension, with the possibility of leaving earlier if Parliament accepts an agreement.

But by asking for a relatively short extension – even if it fails – the prime minister hopes to escape the anger of some of his backbenchers supporting the Brexit, who are ready to leave.

And she will try to make it clear to constituents who support supporters that her choice is to leave the EU as soon as possible – and that a longer extension will be a constraint that will be imposed on her rather than something that would be imposed on her. she kisses.

Gray line of presentation

In her letter, the Premier said she would continue to seek "swift approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" of future relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. 39; EU.

She added that if the negotiations between the parties with the Labor Party could not establish a "single unified approach" to the British Parliament, the deputies would be invited to vote on a series of options at Brexit that the government "would be ready to respect ", if the work agrees to do the same.

The United Kingdom proposes an extension of the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's opinion that if the United Kingdom is still a Member State of the European Union, 39 European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be legally held elections ".

To this end, it declares that the United Kingdom "undertakes the legal and responsible preparations for this eventuality".

But it suggests that the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal agreement before that date, and cancel the preparations for the European Parliament elections.

At a meeting of EU ambbadadors in Brussels, the EU's chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, said any extension granted should be the last and last bid, so to preserve the credibility of the EU.

One could almost hear the sound of collective glory in 27 European capitals after Theresa May called for an extension of Brexit that Brussels had already rejected several times.

Most European leaders are leaning for a longer deadline around the Brexit, in order to avoid being constantly approached by the Prime Minister for a series of short extensions, with the threat of a Brexit without agreement , always at hand.

Donald Tusk believes he has found a compromise solution: his "flextension" that would last one year, the United Kingdom can withdraw as soon as Parliament has ratified the agreement on Brexit.

But European leaders do not sing the same score yet.

Expect a closed-door political fireworks – though it's not clear whether it will be a modest show or a total extravagance – at the brink of urgency of their Brexit next week . Under EU law, they must be heard on a unanimous position.

Talks between Labor and Conservatives continue Friday.

Speaking to union activists in Newport on Friday, Corbyn said the government "does not seem to have changed much in opinion yet." He added that the Labor Party would do its utmost to maintain the "UK's market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said that the United Kingdom still hoped to leave "in the next two months", but that it may not have "the choice" but to accept a longer period if the Parliament could not accept a solution.

But conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the EU "should pay attention to what it wants".

"If we have European elections, it is likely that UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will be doing well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another conservative eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for a year yet only for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of an agreement withdrawal.

Stephen Gethins, of the Scottish National Party, said the Prime Minister's proposal "unambiguously demonstrates that it puts the interests of his conservative fractured party above all else".

"It is clear that the British Parliament is unable to reach a consensus – badociated with everything we now know about the harmful effects of Brexit on the economy, jobs and standard of living in the UK – it It is now necessary for the dossier to be given priority to the citizens in a new second referendum on the EU, with the possibility of remaining on the ballot ".

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