Taranaki Daily News

Offer to extend Brexit transition

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Theresa May has told EU leaders she is prepared to consider extending the Brexit transition period as she called on them to show ‘‘courage’’ and come up with ‘‘creative’’ ideas to break the deadlock.

At a summit in Brussels, the Prime Minister said Britain would be open to the idea of remaining tied to the EU beyond the end of December 2020, even though that could mean paying billions of pounds more to Brussels.

Last week The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, had proposed extending the transition period by another year, to the end of 2021, to allow more time for a trade deal to be worked out.

Yesterday Barnier said ‘‘much more time’’ was needed to find a solution to the Irish border problem, and extending the transition period could help defuse the row over the backstop.

May tried to shift the onus on to her EU counterpar­ts by saying they needed to show ‘‘trust and leadership’’.

In a comment that will be interprete­d as a reference to Vladimir Putin, she also reportedly said that if they did not agree a deal, ‘‘those outside the EU will claim the current world order is crumbling, they will cheer and we don’t want them to do that’’.

However, the other 27 leaders tried to throw the ball back into her court, with one saying it was ‘‘very difficult’’ to negotiate because the British ‘‘do not know what they really want’’.

Meanwhile, five former Cabinet ministers, warned the prime minister that she would not be forgiven by the British people if Brexit was reduced to a ‘‘choreograp­hed show of resistance followed by surrender’’.

May spent around 20 minutes addressing the other 27 EU leaders in Brussels before they shut her out of a dinner at which they discussed Brexit.

This week’s summit had been described by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, as a ‘‘moment of truth’’ for Brexit, but in reality May arrived with little or no expectatio­n of a breakthrou­gh being made.

With both sides entrenched in their positions over a backstop if no agreement can be reached over the Irish border, Barnier said: ‘‘We need time, we need much more time and we continue the work in the next weeks calmly and patiently.’’

May said: ‘‘I remain confident of a good outcome. The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides.’’

A senior British official added that May’s message was: ‘‘We need to find creative ways out of this dilemma.’’

Antonio Tajani, the European Parliament president, said: ‘‘There was a message of goodwill and readiness to reach an agreement, but I didn’t perceive anything substantia­lly new.’’

On the idea of a longer transition period, he added: ‘‘It was mentioned. Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibilit­y.’’

A senior EU official said: ‘‘She said the UK would be ready to consider the extension of the transition period.’’ However, Euroscepti­cs have already reacted with fury to the idea, pointing out that it would cost between £6 billion and £14 billion in extra payments to the EU.

Dalia Grybauskai­te, the Lithuanian president, said: ‘‘We need a very concrete understand­ing what the UK really wants. To stay one leg on the continent and one leg in the UK not possible.

‘‘We do not know what they want, they do not know themselves what they really want, that’s the problem.’’

– Telegraph Group

‘‘We need time, we need much more time and we continue the work in the next weeks calmly and patiently.’’ Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator

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