German Chancellor Angela Merkel kisses British Prime Minister Theresa May as she leaves after they met to discuss Brexit, at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
April 9, 2019
By Thomas Escritt, Paul Carrel and Richard Lough
BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday met Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, to seek support for a new Brexit delay while her ministers tried to break the deadlock in London at crisis talks with the opposition Labour Party.
More than a week after the United Kingdom was originally supposed to have left the EU, the weakest British leader in a generation has said Brexit might never happen as she battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a divided parliament.
With little sign of a resolution in London, May dashed to Berlin ahead of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, to seek support for her request to delay Brexit a second time, from April 12 to June 30.
May met Merkel at her riverside Chancellery, a short walk from the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan in 1987 urged Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” – the barrier that had divided West and East Berlin since 1961.
While Merkel and May discussed Brexit inside, the opposition liberal FDP party drove an advertising van past the chancellor’s office with a message for May: “Dear Theresa May. Just do it. Stop Brexit. Make the most of Europe’s opportunities.”
May and Merkel exchanged kisses on departure, with the German leader waving farewell as May headed to Paris to meet Macron at the Elysee Palace.
On the eve of an emergency EU summit in Brussels, chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was ready to grant a delay, but that the duration “has got to be in line with the purpose of any such extension”.
“Any extension should serve a purpose. The length should be proportional to the objective. Our objective is an orderly withdrawal,” Barnier told a news conference in Luxembourg.
“No-deal will never be the EU’s decision. In order to avoid no-deal, the UK needs to agree to a deal,” Barnier said.
EU leaders, fatigued by the three-year Brexit crisis, have repeatedly refused to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement that May agreed in November. Barnier repeated that, though he held open the option of agreeing much closer post-Brexit ties.
The pound, which has seesawed so much on Brexit news that some investors have stepped away from the sterling market, rose and then dipped on speculation Merkel could offer May a better deal. Germany denied that.
“STOP BREXIT”
The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom divided over much more than EU membership, and has sparked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British.
Yet nothing is resolved and many opponents of Brexit say the whole divorce is at risk, especially if there is a long delay.
Unable to convince enough of her own Conservatives of the merits of her deal to get it passed, May is courting socialist Jeremy Corbyn, whose Labour Party wants to keep Britain more closely tied to the bloc after Brexit.
Talks between Labour and May’s government continued.
Labour’s demands include keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU, something that is hard to reconcile with May’s desire for Britain to have an independent trade policy, and a second referendum on any deal.
Asked if the government had shown any willingness to change its position on a customs union, John McDonnell, its finance policy chief, told reporters: “Not yet, not even changes in language that I detect, but we’ll see what comes out this afternoon.”
The EU has been clear that it would accept a softer Brexit, but the idea is anathema to eurosceptics in May’s party who have helped to defeat May’s divorce deal three times this year.
EU ministers discussed their conditions for any long delay, which include Britain holding European Parliament elections in May and committing to “sincere cooperation”, or not undermining EU reforms and institutions should it stay a member for longer.
Meanwhile in London, lawmakers were due to debate her Brexit delay proposal.
Without an extension, Britain is due to leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday, without a deal to cushion the economic shock.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; additional reporting by Kylie MacLellan, William James, Elizabeth Piper and Costas Pitas in London and Gabriela Baczynska in Luxembourg; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood)
