Britain, European Union offer competing Brexit delay dates
- PM Theresa May wants extension until June 30
- EU suggests delaying split for up to a year
Prime Minister Theresa May asked the European Union on Friday to delay Britain’s departure until June 30 while the bloc itself suggested that it might be best to postpone the split for up to a year.
The competing visions of how to unwind Britain’s 46-year involvement in the European project will be hashed out again at an EU leader’ summit in Brussels on Wednesday – a clash analysts said May is likely to lose.
The current Brexit deadline of April 12 has already been pushed back once from March 29 because of the United Kingdom’s parliament’s failure on three occasions to back the deal May signed with the other 27 EU leaders in December.
May’s formal request to EU Council president Donald Tusk said Britain proposes that the delay “should end on June 30 2019” – the same date she asked for at the last EU summit last month.
“If the parties are able to ratify before this date, the government proposes that the period should be terminated earlier,” May wrote in a letter released by Downing Street.
A senior EU official said that Tusk’s own idea to offer Britain a “flexible” 12-month extension “will be presented to member states today”.