EU plots to delay Brexit by 2 years
Plan would force us to hold new round of MEP elections ... at a cost of £109million!
DONALD Tusk is ready to push EU leaders into offering Theresa May a Brexit delay of up to two years – leaving Britain forced to stage European Parliament elections at a cost of more than £100million.
The European Council president yesterday said the EU’s politicians should be ‘open to a long extension’ if the Prime Minister requests a departure delay at a Brussels summit next Thursday.
Mr Tusk said the time could be used by the UK ‘to rethink its Brexit strategy and build consensus around it’.
According to a senior EU official, Mr Tusk believes that if Mrs May’s deal is not passed next week, the country would need at least a year and possibly much longer to decide how – and indeed whether – it wants to leave.
If the UK remained a member of the EU it would have to keep paying membership contributions of around £12billion a year. It is already committed to paying these during the transition period – currently due to run from March 29 to the end of December 2020.
In the run-up to next week’s European Council meeting, Mr Tusk will travel to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday, and Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Tuesday.
Mr Macron has previously voiced doubts about a longer extension, though Mrs Merkel has appeared more open to giving Britain time.
However, EU officials have been pushing Britain to be clear about what the country wants from a delay before granting one.
Irish deputy premier Simon Coveney yesterday suggested the EU may offer the UK a 21-month Brexit delay, up to the end of 2020.
He said a lengthy extension to Article 50 would give the UK a ‘long reflection period’ to consider the kind of Brexit it wanted and could facilitate a fundamental rethink. Mr Coveney said Ireland would not present an obstacle to an extension but added: ‘Some of the European prime ministers will be quite demanding.’ They would want to know in detail what they would be offering an extension for, he said.
A number of leading EU figures have been calling for Brussels to refuse any extension beyond the European Parliament elections, which will take place between May 23 and 26. If Britain remains a member for longer, the country would be required to elect 73 MEPs under EU law.
Ministers have estimated the cost to British taxpayers of holding an election would be ‘at least £109million’.
The total cost to the Government of the May 2014 European parliamentary elections was £108,689,344. This included the distribution of poll cards, operation of polling stations, provision of postal votes, the count, and the fees paid to returning officers.
Official figures show this worked out at a £1.47 cost per eligible registered elector and a £4.12 cost per vote cast.
Portugal yesterday said it was ready to support a delay to Brexit if Mrs May properly justifies such a request. But the country’s foreign ministry said it has to be sufficiently long so that the sides can find an acceptable solution.
‘Allowing an extension by just some weeks, we would create an illusion that the current problem is of a technical nature, when what we’ve got is a political issue,’ the ministry said.
The Dutch government said it was also willing to grant an extension as long as it is clear what the purpose is.
Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister, who is the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, tweeted: ‘Under no circumstances an extension in the dark.
‘Unless there is a clear majority in the House of Commons for something precise, there is no reason at all for the European Council to agree on a prolongation.’
European Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas said: ‘First we need to see a UK reasoned request and then this will be in the hands of the leaders of the EU27 who will decide accordingly.
‘If the UK is still a member of the EU at the time of the parliament elections they will have to take part in those.’