Theresa May is expected to ask the EU to delay Brexit by at least three months this week
19 March 2019 - 20:40Michel Barnier addresses a news conference in Brussels, Belgium. Picture: REUTERS
“It is our duty to ask whether this extension would be useful. It would extend uncertainty and uncertainty costs. We cannot prolong uncertainty without having a good reason for it,” Barnier told a news conference 10 days before Brexit is due to happen. “A longer extension needs to be linked to something new, there needs to be a new event, a new political process,” he said.The EU has pondered a Brexit delay as long as until the end of 2020 — when the bloc’s current long-term budget ends — if London were to change May’s approach and seek much closer ties with the bloc after leaving, hold a second referendum or elections.
The bloc insists Britain would have to take part in European parliament elections due on May 24-26 if it were still to be a member of the bloc beyond June 2, when the new chamber convenes.But it worries about opening the way to legal challenges to the parliament’s legitimacy should Britain eschew the vote but remain inside the EU longer. The EU must agree unanimously to any London request for a Brexit delay.
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