EU demands more progress on Brexit despite May’s plea
May’s failure to respond to Tusk’s call takes bloc closer to catastrophic exit, officials say
EU leaders have warned that there must be more progress in Brexit negotiations despite hearing a personal plea by British Prime Minister Theresa May, who said she was open to a longer transition phase to unblock the talks.
European leaders had planned to hold a special summit in November to seal the divorce, but they refused to sign off on the plan, taking the bloc a step closer to the potentially catastrophic scenario of Britain crashing out in March without a deal. May had earlier addressed her fellow leaders, indicating that she could accept extending the post-Brexit transition phase to take the heat out the deadlocked issue of the Irish border, officials said.
But she failed to respond to a call by EU President Donald Tusk for “concrete proposals” of her own to move the talks forward. When the other 27 European Union leaders met without her over dinner on Wednesday evening, they concluded that “not enough progress has been made” in the negotiations, an EU official said.
No time for ratification
The senior source said the leaders agreed talks should continue but, for now, they are “not planning to organise an extraordinary summit on Brexit in November.” This could see a draft Brexit deal pushed back to a December summit, leaving little time for its ratification by the British and European parliaments.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said EU leaders had asked the bloc “to work with even more vigour on a no deal scenario”. Expectations were low before the summit in Brussels, once dubbed a “moment of truth” in the Brexit talks, after a breakdown in talks between the lead negotiators at the weekend.