Brexit delay

EU delays Brexit, gives UK new deadlines

Lack of clarity from Theresa May and leaders’ disagreements over strategy set off tortured debate.

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, JACOPO BARIGAZZI AND MAÏA DE LA BAUME

EU leaders agreed to postpone Brexit day, imposing two new dates — April 12 and May 22 — that will determine the course of the U.K.'s departure.

Leaders devised the new plan at a summit in Brussels on Thursday after quickly rejecting U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's request for an extension of the Article 50 negotiating period to June 30.

Fierce disagreements among the EU27 over how best to respond to May's extension request forced the leaders to upend their summit agenda and put off a planned dinner discussion about China and the EU’s place in the world. Instead, they took a break, and resumed the Brexit discussion over dinner — a demonstration that despite their best efforts, Brexit to a large degree has hijacked the EU’s more substantive policy agenda.

Both new dates in the EU plan come with conditions, but in either event the original March 29 deadline — the so-called cliff-edge by which Britain would leave the bloc with or without a divorce agreement — was put off, if only for two weeks.

EU27 leaders said that if the U.K. parliament ratifies the Brexit deal before the March 29 deadline, Britain will have until May 22 to complete any technical steps, exit and begin a transition period. That is a day before the European Parliament election begins.

If the House of Commons fails to vote, or votes to reject the deal for a third time — the outcomes leaders view as far more likely given continuing political chaos in London, according to officials — the U.K. would have until April 12 "to indicate a way forward."

European Council President Donald Tusk left the leaders' meeting and presented the plan to May, who agreed — though with a potentially disastrous no-deal Brexit imminent, she had little choice.

At a news conference shortly before midnight, Tusk said the EU's plan left all options open to the U.K. — including a reversal of Brexit altogether.

"The European Council agrees to an extension until the 12th of April, while expecting the United Kingdom to indicate a way forward," Tusk said. "What this means in practice is that, until that date, all options will remain open, and the cliff-edge date will be delayed. The U.K. government will still have a choice of a deal, no-deal, a long extension or revoking Article 50."

Too optimistic

A senior official said that Tusk's initial proposal — to focus on a delay until May 22 in the event of a positive vote in London — was deemed too optimistic by other EU leaders. They engaged May in an hour and 45-minute question and answer session where they found her replies insufficient, and concluded that her failure to win ratification of the Brexit deal would leave them under crushing pressure of the original deadline.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, appearing with Tusk at the news conference, noted that EU leaders on Thursday had also formally adopted additional reassurances regarding the backstop provision on Northern Ireland that he had agreed with May in Strasbourg earlier this month. Those reassurances were not enough to stop the U.K. Parliament from rejecting the deal a second time.

"We have worked tirelessly to negotiate the Withdrawal Agreement; we have done everything we could to get it over the finishing line," Juncker said. "This closes and completes the full package. There is no more that we can have."

Juncker also nodded at the frustration of EU leaders who have had to focus so much energy on the U.K.'s departure.

“The clock is ticking not just on Brexit, the clock is also ticking in other areas,” he said.

The leaders' decision came after hours of agonizing, at times angry, debate. That came after May's appearance left colleagues frustrated by her lack of clarity and inability to steer the Brexit process.

EU officials said they had little confidence in May, but hoped that their plan would leave enough room for the U.K. to chart a path forward, including if Parliament seeks to seize control of the process as some officials have said could happen next week.  More importantly, they said, the pressure would now be in London to choose a course of action before April 12, rather than having EU leaders back in Brussels next week with the decision on their shoulders.

"The European Council agrees to an extension until 22 May 2019, provided the Withdrawal Agreement is approved by the House of Commons next week," the leaders wrote in the formal conclusion of their deliberations. "If the Withdrawal Agreement is not approved by the House of Commons next week, the European Council agrees to an extension until 12 April 2019 and expects the United Kingdom to indicate a way forward before this date for consideration by the European Council."

In fact, although the formal conclusions demand approval of the deal by next week, officials acknowledged that endorsement of it before April 12 would be sufficient to activate the May 22 deadline. The April 12 date was chosen because it reflects the last point at which the U.K., by law, must state if it will participate in the European Parliament election.

If the U.K. does not pass the Brexit deal, the onus would be on London to come forward with an alternative plan. If Britain refused at that point to take part in the European Parliament election, it would face a no-deal Brexit as soon as April 12. The exit date could potentially be delayed to May 22 or even June 30 but not any later, a senior EU official said.

May OK

U.K. officials said May was satisfied with the outcome. She forestalled the immediate crash-out scenario and won a further window of opportunity to save her Brexit deal and her job.

But one senior EU official said May’s answers were “not always crystal clear” in her exchange with her fellow leaders. Another said: “This discussion did not add much in terms of substance. For the leaders, they didn’t get anything that they didn’t know.”

According to a senior official, at one point, French President Emmanuel Macron told leaders that he had thought May had a 10 percent chance of getting the deal through, but after listening to her, he had dropped the number to 5 percent. Tusk told Macron he was being generous.

Other exchanges were heated, officials said.

Macron pushed to bring the proposed May 22 deadline forward to May 7, and he also took a hard line in suggesting that the EU might need to simply eject the U.K. without any agreement — a move that could prove economically disastrous not just to Britain but to the EU, especially for countries whose economies are closely linked to the U.K. such as Ireland and the Netherlands.

Macron clashed with Tusk who had urged the May 22 date, with an eye toward pressing Britain either to ratify the existing deal or potentially request a far longer extension of up to a year or more. May, however, expressed no interest in a long delay, and she even suggested she might prefer a no-deal outcome — defying the House of Commons which voted last week to prevent that scenario.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened, diplomats and officials said, in order to push back on Macron about the no-deal result, which she argued was irresponsible and must be avoided. But she also rebuked Tusk over the chaotic and divisive debate, which the chancellor apparently felt showed a lack of preparedness by European Council officials.

An EU diplomat said the French "were quite hard, especially between Macron and May — he was hard on her and asked her: Are you prepared for a no deal?"

The upcoming European Parliament election was a chief factor in when to set the new deadlines. EU leaders fear that the bloc will face an institutional crisis if somehow the U.K. remained a member state but refused to participate in the election and send representatives to Brussels as required under the EU treaties.

Lili Bayer, Charlie Cooper, Florian Eder, Rym Momtaz, and Zia Weise contributed reporting.