quinta-feira, 11 de abril de 2019

UK granted Brexit extension but warned not to ‘waste this time’




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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