SPANISH president Pedro Sánchez has warned his British counterpart Theresa May that if she wants to extend the deadline for Brexit, she needs to have a clear plan.
“You can’t go forward by going around in circles; that’s not the solution,” Sánchez said.
He stressed that Mrs May’s deal is the ‘best possible’ and the ‘only viable option’ if the UK wants to leave the European Union and that no better deal is available if Brexit proceeds, but stressed that Spain will ‘always provide constructive solutions’ to promote ‘an orderly exit’ from the EU.
If the deal, which has been voted down twice, does not get through Parliament within the next nine days, the UK wants an extension to Article 50 so as to avoid crashing out without a deal, which experts say would be disastrous for Britain and cause financial loss to its trading partners in the EU.
Spain will ‘listen to the UK’s proposals’, says Sánchez, but has made it clear that if Mrs May wants an extension, she ‘needs to make it clear what it is for and for how long’.
She was expecting to ask the Council of Europe – made up of the national leaders of all 28 countries, including herself – for a three-month ‘technical extension’ if her deal had been approved by UK Parliament, or longer if it had not.
The British prime minister wanted a third vote on her deal before the European Union leaders’ summit, due this Thursday, but Parliament will not agree to a further vote unless there are changes in the deal.
And the EU has refused to agree any changes.
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