Merkel offers lifeline but bans talks
GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel threw a lifeline to Theresa May yesterday, insisting there is still time for a Brexit deal to be agreed.
But she warned that there is no room for renegotiation and said it is up to the UK to bring a new offer to the table.
Her ultimatum came as Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc is now ramping up preparations for a no-deal withdrawal and Eurocrat Guy Verhofstadt sniped that European politics is better than the political “mess” in the UK.
Mrs Merkel told reporters in Berlin: “We will of course do everything to find an orderly solution, but we are also prepared if there is no orderly solution. We still have time to negotiate, but we are now waiting to see what the British Prime Minister proposes.”
However, the chancellor offered a more frank assessment when she was reported to have told a closed session of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee that there is no room for renegotiations.
Mr Barnier stated yesterday that the EU has no plans to change its negotiating stance, despite Mrs May’s plans for leaving the EU being overwhelmingly rejected by Parliament. And he warned European countries to make contingency plans, admitting: “We are fearing more than ever the risk of no deal.”
Mr Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, weighed into the debate by tweeting: “What we will not let happen, deal or no deal, is that the mess in British politics is again imported into European politics.”
In Finland, prime minister Juha Sipila urged all British citizens living in the country to immediately register at the immigration service, to make sure that they receive a “living permit” in case of a no-deal Brexit.