The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Delay must be ‘useful’ to get approval: Negotiator
Warning the EU will need ‘reason’ before decision on any extension
The European Union will need to know “the reason and the usefulness” of any UK request for a delay to Brexit before deciding whether to grant an extension, the EU’s chief negotiator has cautioned.
Theresa May is due to write by the end of today to European Council president Donald Tusk, setting out her proposal to extend the two-year process of negotiating withdrawal under the EU’s Article 50 rules.
But a delay in Brexit beyond the scheduled date of March 29 needs the approval of all 27 remaining member states at a summit in Brussels tomorrow.
Chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a news conference in Brussels: “It is our duty to ask whether this extension would be useful because an extension will be something which would extend uncertainty and uncertainty costs.”
He warned that the UK would need to propose “something new” to justify a lengthy extension, he said.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Mrs May could ask for a lengthy extension to Article 50, with the option of an early break in May or June if she manages to get her Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament.
But Mr Barnier appeared to pour cold water on this possibility, telling a reporter: “You said both short and long. Well, it’s either one or the other, isn’t it?”
He added: “My feeling is... A longer extension needs to be linked to something new. There needs to be a new event or a new political process.”
If the EU agrees an extension, Brexit will be delayed by the passage of a statutory instrument through both Houses of Parliament removing the date of March 29 from the legislation.
MPs will be given an opportunity in the House of Commons on Monday to debate how the process should go forward.
At a meeting of Cabinet in Downing Street, Mrs May voiced her “absolute determination” that MPs should have another chance to vote on her Brexit deal, despite the bombshell intervention of the Commons Speaker.
John Bercow provoked uproar at Westminster on Monday when he ruled that the government cannot bring the prime minister’s deal back for a third “meaningful vote” unless there were substantial changes.
However, in the course of a 90-minute discussion at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet in Downing Street, Mrs May made clear she wanted MPs to have another vote “as soon as possible”.