Brexit news - live: EU leaders agree to extend Article 50 until end of October
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Your support makes all the difference.European leaders agreed to grant another extension to Britain’s membership of the EU at an emergency summit on Wednesday night, offering the UK a delay to its departure date until Halloween – 31 October.
Theresa May travelled to Brussels where she pleaded with EU leaders to delay Brexit until 30 June, rather than see the UK crash out without deal on Friday.
Most EU leaders appeared ready to back Donald Tusk’s proposal of a longer delay, but a decision was held up by French President Emmanuel Macron, who insisted on “no long extension”.
Here’s how the day unfolded:
A no-deal exit is not the worst option ahead, a top French official has said.
A disorderly Brexit might be preferable than obstruction of EU operations by the British if they were to remain a member against their will, a spokesman for Emmanuel Macron told Reuters.
“Not everything is preferable to a no-deal. A no-deal situation is a real option,” a French presidency official said.
The official added that the current state of negotiations did not include sufficient guarantees against possible obstructions to justify a long extension.
Some speculation that the longest Brexit extension under discussion – March 2020 – has been rejected by EU leaders tonight.
As French president Emmanuel Macron argues for a shorter delay, he is reportedly telling fellow EU leaders that a no-deal Brexit is not the worst option in the months ahead.
EU officials are also thought to be considering an extension of the European Commission’s mandate should Britain be granted a long delay.
It would extend the mandate of the existing executive led by Jean-Claude Juncker beyond its term which expires at end of October, a senior official has told Reuters.
Any extension, which would be limited to a few months, would avoid the risk that a changed power balance in the EU parliament after Brexit could raise doubt about the legitimacy of the new executive.
Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, however said on Wednesday that he saw no reason to extend its mandate. He is the candidate for the socialist grouping for the presidency of the new commission.
No word yet on when we might hear a decision from the EU 27. But the length of speeches suggests it may be some time.
Sophie In’t Veld, deputy to EU negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, has said European leaders are still concerned about extending Brexit amid threats the UK could cause disruption were it to stay in the bloc after its elections.
She told Newsnight the EU could ask the UK to pledge not to cause problems – citing tweets by Jacob Rees-Mogg – but said there was a “big question mark” over how reliable such a vow would be as it would have no legal backing.
“It cannot be that we will be held hostage by the UK for who knows, months, maybe a few years even.
“We need to be absolutely sure that the UK is not going to disrupt the work of the European Union,” she added. “And there is a big question mark of course. Some government leaders have said that we can just have a code of conduct and ask the UK to not disrupt the European Union.
"Tweets by people like Jacob Rees-Mogg for example, that if we stay in the European Union that we disrupt things, it doesn't create an atmosphere of trust here.”
Emmanuel Macron has reportedly told his peers any Brexit delay beyond June 30 would “undermine the bloc”.
It is increasingly clear he has pushed the hardest line tonight, and some of the diplomats from other member states have expressed their annoyance at the French for introducing even more uncertainty into the summit.
“Their behaviour is annoying, just posturing to show how important and powerful they are,” one EU diplomat told Reuters. “On the one hand, they say no-deal is not that bad but then ask EU help for their fisheries in a no-deal. It's either one or the other.”
Another diplomat said: “Macron just made a powerful statement. (He) said anything beyond June 30 would jeopardise the EU and we shouldn’t go there.”
The EU 27 leaders are currently taking a short break, before they reconvene and go round the room again to try to break the deadlock over the length of the Brexit delay.
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