Downing Street says May plans to write to Tusk on Friday to formally request an extension
Donald Tusk is pushing the EU27 to offer Theresa May a one-year “flexible” extension to article 50 with an option to leave the EU earlier once the withdrawal agreement is ratified by parliament, senior sources have told the Guardian.
The moves comes as Downing Street confirmed that May plans to write to Tusk on Friday to formally request an extension.
The European council president, who is said to have described the plan as “the only reasonable way out”, will tell leaders at a summit on Wednesday the “flextension” idea would avoid them having to consider extra Brexitdelays every few weeks.
The EU27 will need to unanimously agree to the plan, which Tusk is backing after hours of preparatory meetings in recent days ending late on Thursday, senior EU sources said.
The former Polish prime minister is determined to give Downing Street as much flexibility as possible to avoid any suggestion that Brussels is seeking to trap Britain in the EU.
The UK’s nominal last day would likely be 10 April 2020 – a Friday, offering a weekend buffer zone in the event of no deal – but Britain would be expected to leave well before then.
A senior official said Tusk told senior figures on Thursday evening it was the best solution for both sides.
“The only reasonable way out would be a long but flexible extension,” Tusk was said to have told officials. “I would call it a ‘flextension’. How would it work in practice? We could give the UK a year-long extension, automatically terminated once the withdrawal agreement has been accepted and ratified by the House of Commons.”
The source said Tusk told officials that “even if this were not possible, then the UK would still have enough time to rethink its Brexit strategy. Short extension if possible and a long one if necessary. It seems to be a good scenario for both sides, as it gives the UK all the necessary flexibility, while avoiding the need to meet every few weeks to further discuss Brexit extensions.”
There will inevitably be concerns in some EU capitals about both the length of the extension, given the potential for the British government to meddle in the EU’s long-term planning, and the uncertainty it would create about the UK’s position in the bloc.
The failure of the parliament to coalesce around a post-Brexit vision will be a source of frustration for Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who has insisted the UK must have a “credible plan” for the EU to offer any further extension at all.
EU sources said the plan would, however, offer the reassurance that Britain would be making its own fortune and not dragging Brussels into its crisis.
The UK would have to hold elections to the European parliament on 23 May under the Tusk plan, but British MEPs would leave the chamber once the UK had left the bloc.
A set of MEPs from the other 27 member states would then step in, sources suggested.
The development comes as the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, said in an interview with the BBC he thought the offer from the EU was “likely to be a long one” and would have to be accepted by Downing Street.
The current legal position is that the UK is to leave the EU at 11pm GMT on 12 April. The prime minister had said earlier this week she would seek a short extension until 22 May to allow cross-party talks with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to come to fruition.
But speaking to the European parliament within 24 hours of May making her intent clear, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, rejected it. He instead set an “ultimate deadline” of 12 April for the Commons to approve the withdrawal agreement.
“If it has not done so by then, no further short extension will be possible,” he said. “After 12 April, we risk jeopardising the European parliament elections, and so threaten the functioning of the European Union.”
With the Commons tying the prime minister to avoiding a no-deal Brexit, and the EU preparing an option that it believes will suit Downing Street, the threat of the UK crashing out of the bloc is heavily diminished.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has in recent days backed the idea of a flextension.
Meanwhile, May is expected to write to Jeremy Corbyn to set out the government’s offer on Brexit, with negotiations due to resume in Downing Street on Friday.
With five days to go before the prime minister travels to Brussels to request a Brexit delay from EU leaders, little progress appeared to have been made on finding a compromise deal both Labour and the Conservatives can back.
The Guardian
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