Macron enrages EU leaders after opposing long Brexit extension
French president isolated, with German officials said to be
very irritated with his stance
Jennifer Rankin and Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Thu 11 Apr 2019 01.19 BST Last modified on Thu 11 Apr 2019
09.51 BST
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, enraged fellow
leaders after standing alone against a long extension to Britain’s membership
of the EU.
Macron insisted on speaking last during a working dinner in
Brussels on Wednesday night during which he set his stall against a longer
extension up to 31 December backed by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Over a dinner of scallop salad, cod loin and macadamia nut
parfait, it soon emerged that France was nearly isolated, with only a handful
of member states, such as Belgium, sounding sympathetic to his arguments.
The French president angered some EU leaders with his
attempt to block a long extension of nine to 12 months that was favoured by the
majority.
The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, told
the room that Macron’s opposition meant that “we are now only solving French
domestic problems”.
German officials were said to be “very irritated” with
Macron.
France argued that a long delay risked serious damage to the
EU, an outcome Paris said was worse than no-deal. “We do not want to import
Britain’s political crisis into the EU,” said an Élysée official.
Theresa May’s talks with Jeremy Corbyn were not a
justification “that we have a long extension without guarantees for the
functioning of the European Union”.
The French source said no-deal could not be ruled out,
arguing that damaging the running of the EU was the worst possible outcome.
“The default position is no deal. Endangering the functioning of the EU is not
preferable to no-deal.”
After the new deadline was announced, Macron said leaders
had found “the best possible compromise” because the 31 October date preserved
EU unity, allowed the British more time and preserved “the good functioning of
the European Union”.
France had been worried the UK would act as a spoiler on
future EU decisions. Macron said this outcome was avoided because the autumn
date means the UK will leave before the arrival of a new European commission on
1 November.
A long extension he said would not have been logical for the
EU. “We would have decided to weaken our institutions, by having a member who
is permanently there but leaving.”
“It’s true that the
majority was more in favour of a very long extension. But it was not logical in
my view, and above all, it was neither good for us, nor for the UK,” he said.
“I take responsibility for this position, I think it’s for
the collective good.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Macron had tweeted: “What is
essential: nothing to compromise the European project. We have a European
Renaissance to lead, I believe very deeply and I do not want the subject of
Brexit to block us on this point.”
Offering support to Macron, the EU chief negotiator, Michel
Barnier, told the room that the UK would still have the choice to avoid
no-deal.
While the EU wrangled over dates, May dined at the British
ambassador’s residence, where roast lamb and treacle tart was on the menu. She
was called back to the summit around midnight to be presented with a
take-it-or-leave-it delay until 31 October 2018, with the issue to be reviewed
in June.
An EU diplomat described the review clause as “nonsense”
because as a member state the UK would have the right to veto any attempt to
kick it out of the union.
May had spent one hour with EU leaders to persuade them of
her extension plan. While her bid for a 30 June deadline failed, she made clear
she was not against a longer extension, as long as the UK could leave earlier.
The prime minister garnered more positive reviews of her
performance than the previous summit, when she was slated for being evasive.
Some in the room found her presentation “credible and
honest”. “May was better than last time, but still somewhat evasive on the big
questions,” one EU source said.
New Brexit fright night: EU sets Halloween deadline
After fierce pushback from Emmanuel Macron, leaders grant
6-month delay with flexibility for UK to leave earlier.
By DAVID M.
HERSZENHORN, CHARLIE COOPER AND MAÏA DE LA BAUME 4/11/19, 5:21 AM CET Updated 4/11/19, 5:55 AM CET
EU leaders postponed the U.K.'s Brexit deadline to October
31 — but granted Britain the flexibility to leave earlier | European Council
The United Kingdom will remain in the EU — for now, at
least.
EU leaders, acting on a request from Prime Minister Theresa
May, once again postponed the deadline by which the U.K. would be ejected from
the bloc without the protection of a negotiated Withdrawal Agreement, this time
setting the date for October 31.
Crucially, however, they granted Britain the flexibility to
leave earlier — essentially as soon as the U.K. government can reach a deal
among its own warring factions, and parliament ratifies the Withdrawal
Agreement. That's the 585-page treaty securing protections for citizens'
rights, a financial settlement, and the insurance policy for the Ireland border
known as "the backstop."
The delay of this Friday's deadline — itself a postponement
from the original date of March 29 — averts a potentially catastrophic no-deal
departure that both sides had increasingly feared as a path toward mutual
disaster.
The decision was reached after a more arduous, and longer
than expected debate among EU27 leaders at a summit in Brussels that began
Wednesday evening and stretched until 2 a.m. Thursday. While the leaders had
agreed ahead of time that an extension was necessary, French President Emmanuel
Macron made a fierce argument for only a short postponement, effectively siding
with May who had requested a delay until June 30.
"This means an additional six months for the U.K."
— Donald Tusk, European Council president
Heavily outnumbered by other leaders, including Germany's
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron eventually relented. But he succeeded in
reducing the extension to nearly half of the year-long delay that EU officials
had envisioned going into their meeting.
"This means an additional six months for the
U.K.," European Council President Donald Tusk declared at a closing news
conference. "During this time, the course of action will be entirely in
the U.K.'s hands. It can still ratify the Withdrawal Agreement, in which case
the extension will be terminated. It can also reconsider the whole Brexit
strategy. That might lead to changes in the Political Declaration [setting out
the future relationship], but not in the Withdrawal Agreement. Until the end of
this period, the U.K, will also have the possibility to revoke Article 50 and
cancel Brexit altogether."
For the U.K., the reprieve carries a potentially steep
political price: Unless May pulls together a deal quickly, Britain must
participate in next month's European Parliament election. That sets the stage
for a dramatic vote on May 23 that will serve as an electoral lightning rod for
the highly-charged emotions that have divided the country since the June 2016
referendum.
That immediately amps up pressure on May to reach an accord
with the opposition Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. But Corbyn no longer
faces the short-term threat of being blamed for a no-deal outcome, and may now
be emboldened to torpedo the negotiations and press instead a new national
election. Already, he has accused May of refusing to budge from the
government's red lines.
May blames MPs
Asked at a 2.44 a.m. news conference whether she thought she
should apologize for again disappointing those who wanted the U.K. out of the
EU as soon as possible, May put the blame firmly on parliament.
“Over the last three months I have voted three times to
leave the European Union,” she said, barely attempting to hide her exasperation.
Rolling her eyes, she added: “If sufficient members of
parliament had voted with me in January we would already be out of the European
Union. We haven’t been able to get that majority in parliament.” She would work
for that majority across party lines, she said, so that the U.K. could leave
“as soon as possible.”
“That’s what I’m going to continue to work for," May
said.
While averting a crash-out, the delay may offer little
solace to thousands of businesses and millions of citizens on edge about what
Brexit will mean for their lives and livelihoods. Until there is agreement in
Westminster, a no-deal scenario will remain a very real a possibility down the
line.
For the EU, the extension was the choice of a lesser evil.
Brexit will continue to pose a major distraction, and cast a shadow over the
upcoming European Parliament election and the subsequent negotiations to form a
new Commission and appoint a new roster of leaders. At the same time, it keeps
alive the hope among some in the EU that Brexit will be undone and a U.K.
departure will never come to pass.
Macron surprised many of his fellow leaders with the ferocity
of his arguments. He was second to last to speak in the traditional tour de
table and officials said that many leaders believed Macron intended to veto any
extension that went beyond May's request of June 30, such was the vehemence of
his speech.
Macron bats for Brexiteers
After the meeting, Macron insisted that he had not
backtracked but rather stuck to his principles and that he was also defending
the democratic choice of British voters to leave the EU.
"The majority position was rather to give a very long
extension but in my view it wasn’t logical and above all it was neither good
for us nor for the British people,” he said.
"There were temptations to go very far in granting
deadlines, and in my view it wasn’t about respecting the vote of the British
people but rather to get them locked into membership," Macron said.
That amounted to a stunning accusation of double-dealing by
some of his fellow EU leaders who insisted that they were doing everything in
their power to leave Britain in charge of its own fate. But it also reflected
Macron's own view of himself as a crusader for ambitious EU reforms that so far
have failed to gain much traction and will not be helped by Britain's lingering
membership.
The final result was a classic EU compromise. A Halloween
end date for a process that for many in the EU has become an increasingly
terrifying horror show. The date also coincides with the end of the Juncker
Commission's mandate, meaning a fresh start for the EU's new leadership.
May has said she intends for Britain to leave long before
that date. Officials in Brussels who have watched the U.K. miss every Brexit
deadline on offer said they will believe it when they see it.
It was clear that Merkel had emerged as a driving force to
prevent a disorderly, no-deal departure by the U.K. and that she had been
instrumental in countering Macron's push for a much shorter extension.
“I think that also what she's attempting is proper and
correct, but she does not yet have a big ace up her sleeve, in my
assessment" — Sebastian Kurz, Austrian chancellor
"We want an orderly exit, and that can be ensured by
allowing for some more time," Merkel said at the end of the long night's
proceedings. "For me it was clear that we, that Germany, would fight for
an orderly exit — not because of British demands but for our own
interest."
EU leaders had also sought reassurances from May that
Britain would continue to act in good faith, and not seek to sabotage any of
the bloc's decision-making in Brexit's extra time. The decision by the EU27
leaders also included a provision mandating that the bloc "review
progress" at its regular summit in June. Officials said that meant an
informational update and not that leaders would take any new decision or that
the U.K. might face any new deadline or mandate.
Despite taking the immediate heat out of Brexit, Austrian
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was among the leaders who said they could not predict
how the process would now play out.
“Theresa May very clearly once again described how her plan
looks, what plan she's pursuing,” Kurz told reporters. “I think that also what
she's attempting is proper and correct, but she does not yet have a big ace up
her sleeve, in my assessment.”
Jacopo Barigazzi, Lili Bayer, Jack Blanchard, Eline Schaart,
Paul Taylor and Zia Weise contributed reporting
Theresa May will face pressure to quit from Brexiters over
delay
Former Brexit secretary David Davis says calls for her to go
will rise dramatically
Rowena Mason Deputy political editor
Thu 11 Apr 2019 10.13 BST First published on Thu 11 Apr 2019
10.09 BST
Theresa May will face increasing pressure from Eurosceptics
to stand down after accepting a delay to leaving the EU until the end of
October, the former Brexit secretary David Davis, has said.
Davis, who has not ruled out standing to replace her, said
on Thursday that calls for her to go would rise dramatically but did not sound
convinced they could persuade her to resign of her own accord or be able to
force her out.
The prime minister cannot officially be subject to another
party leadership challenge until December – a year after seeing off the last
one – but a string of Conservative MPs are considering ways to show she has
lost the confidence of her party.
Conservative sources were adamant that May wants to stay on
to complete the first phase of leaving, which is now extended for another six
months until 31 October, unless her deal passes before then.
However, a soft-Brexit deal with Labour, or a dire performance
in the local elections, could be the tipping point for a coup. The problem for
the rebels would now be that six months is a tight timetable for a leadership
contest and a new prime minister to reset Brexit policy or call a general
election before 31 October.
Davis told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “She said, and
No 10 put the date of 22 May on it. When PMs put a date on their own departure,
it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy … The pressure on her to go will increase
dramatically, I suspect now. Whether it comes to anything, who knows? The rules
are the rules. There will be pressure on her to go, there will a new leader and
then a reset in the negotiations.”
He said it would be difficult to see how May could continue
to be leader until the party conference in the autumn.
At the same time, Davis joined other senior Eurosceptics and
the Democratic Unionist party in urging the UK to go back to Brussels to
renegotiate the controversial Irish backstop that they fear could trap Britain
into an indefinite customs union. He insisted the EU could be persuaded to
reopen the withdrawal agreement despite repeated and vehement insistence to the
contrary in Brussels.
Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, and Iain Duncan Smith, the
former Conservative leader, are mounting their own mission to Brussels on Thursday
to see if they can get Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, to budge.
Brexit supporters who voted for May’s deal were despondent
at the delay. Andrew Percy, a Conservative MP involved in the loyalist Brexit
Delivery Group, said: “The strategy of remainers who have never wanted to
implement Brexit has been to vote everything down and play for time. They know
a long delay probably kills Brexit and the truth is they are probably right and
have probably killed Brexit.”
On the other side, those pushing for a softer Brexit
compromise with Labour were cheered, along with campaigners for a second
referendum, who believe the delay will give more time to build the case for
another vote and hold one.
Ken Clarke, the pro-EU Conservative former chancellor,
welcomed the chance to strike a deal “certainly having a customs union and
elements of the single market as well”, adding that “British business would
breathe a sigh of relief” if that were to happen.
In contrast, Stephen Gethins, the SNP Europe spokesman,
called for May to use the breathing space afforded by the extension to hold a
second referendum.
“This is a watershed moment in the Brexit process. With the
European Union agreeing to a further extension to article 50, Theresa May must
use this time to hold a fresh EU referendum with the option to remain on the
ballot paper,” he said.
Tom Brake, a Liberal Democrat MP and Brexit spokesman for
the party, said: “The British people have been given a lifeline. The
Conservatives have dragged the country into chaos, but the extension agreed in
the early hours of this morning offers a route out from the Brexit mess they
have created.
“A flexible extension until 31 October is long enough to
hold a people’s vote. The prime minister must now show leadership by handing
the decision back to the British public.
“It is long overdue that Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn
abandon their party political games, stop wasting time, and give the people the
final say with an option to stay in the EU.”
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