The two national leaders
May awaits her fate at EU summit after ‘impatient’ French president threatens UK with No Deal Brexit AGAIN and insists ‘nothing is guaranteed’ in new outburst while leaders ponder year-long delay
Theresa May has finished making her pitch for a short Brexit delay to hostile EU leaders at a crunch EU summit that could decide when the UK leaves.
The Prime Minister spent a little more than an hour in a question and answer session at the emergency meeting in Brussels tonight before being kicked out while they decide the UK’s fate over a lavish dinner.
The other 27 leaders of EU nations are deciding whether to give her what she wants – an extension to Article 50 to no later than June 30 – or, as seems more likely, impose a humiliating longer delay to leaving the trade bloc.
She addressed the European Council session in the Belgian capital after Emmanuel Macron had warned her that he was ‘impatient’ and that a long Brexit delay was not guaranteed.ADVERTISING
The French president appeared to wink today as he arrived in the EU’s core – after being urged not to ‘humiliate’ the Prime Minister.
He was set to demand the UK is subjected to a number of punitive conditions with a Christmas deadline to finally quit the trade bloc, but also raised the spectre of a no-deal Brexit, possibly on Friday.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the start of the emergency meeting of national leaders he warned that ‘nothing is settled’, including a long delay, and he was ‘impatient’ to hear what Mrs May had to say.
‘We must understand today why this request, what is the political project which justifies it and what are the clear proposals?’ he said.
‘It is 34 months since the British referendum, and the key for us is that we are able to pursue the European project in a coherent way.
‘I believe deeply that we are carrying out a European rebirth, and I don’t want the subject of Brexit to get in the way of that.’
Mrs May’s performance was shorter than the one she gave at the previous Brexit summit in March, where she spoke for more than 90 minutes before EU leaders dismissed her request – which was the same as the one she made tonight.
An EU official later told Reuters that the ‘sense is May is open to a longer extension as long as it can be terminated early’ and her address had been ‘more solid than usual, though not many specifics’ in it.
She used her own arrival in Brussels this afternoon to lash MPs for refusing to pass the Brexit deal, complaining ‘we should have left by now’, but dodged questions about her own future.
EU leaders are almost certain to reject her bid and force a delay lasting between December 31 this year and March 31, 2020, which could prompt her to resign.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – whose mother Herlind Kasner passed away aged 90 just days ago – wants a gentler, but longer extension, into 2020 – reflecting splits among the EU27 that are set to delay a ruling long into tonight.
Arriving at the EU’s headquarters the PM refused to say if she would quit if Britain is forced to swallow a longer delay – but insisted her aim is still to leave the EU on May 22 if she can win over Jeremy Corbyn.
She said: ‘What is important is that any extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify our Withdrawal Agreement. I know many people will be frustrated that the summit is taking place at all. The UK should have left by now’.
President Macron is also calling for regular ‘behaviour reviews’ of the UK, a bonfire of its EU powers and posts and a ‘Boris-proof’ lock preventing a new Tory leader causing havoc within the EU if she stands down, despite warnings from Donald Tusk and Angela Merkel not to poison relations with Britain. Video playing bottom right…Click here to expand to full page
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Mrs May shared a joke with German chancellor Angela Merkel tonight, ahead of the PM’s pitch to EU leaders in which she is asking for a delay to Brexit until June 30 at the latest