Germany to agree to Brexit delay but France sets conditions as May arrives in Paris

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and other European Union powers will accept Prime Minister Theresa May’s request for another delay to Brexit but French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to limit Britain’s influence as it grapples with its departure.

In a sign of just how far the three-year Brexit crisis has sapped British power, May dashed to Berlin and Paris on Tuesday to ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron to allow the world’s fifth largest economy to delay for a second time.

More than a week after the United Kingdom was originally supposed to leave, May, the weakest British prime minister in a generation, has said she fears Brexit might never happen as she battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a divided parliament.

After her pledge to resign failed to get her deal over the line, she started crisis talks with the opposition Labour Party in the hope of breaking the domestic deadlock ahead of the April 12 exit date.

But as May arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris to a guard of honor, she was unable to trumpet any breakthrough with Labour. So May was asking for a delay until June 30.

“People are tired and fed up – but what to do?” one EU diplomat said. “We won’t be the ones pushing the UK off the cliff edge.”

Another EU official involved with Brexit said an extension was very probable as no European power wanted the chaos that they fear a no-deal exit would sow through financial markets and the EU 27’s $16 trillion economy.

“Nobody wants to pull the plug by 13th April,” said the official. “But for how long – I don’t know. And France will ask a lot of questions in Brussels.”

Shortly before May landed in Paris, an official in Macron’s office said that “in the scenario of an extended delay, one year would seem too long for us”.

He added that if Britain did delay its exit, it should not take part in EU budget talks or in choosing the next president of the EU’s executive commission – and that the other 27 member states should be able to review its “sincere cooperation”.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Macron would not veto May’s extension but wanted conditions attached.

“He (Macron) certainly wants to know about conditionality, particularly the issue of the United Kingdom being involved in future (EU) decision-making,” Varadkar said.

LONG DELAY?

Earlier in the day, May met Merkel at her riverside Chancellery, a short walk from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, and departed with a warm exchange of kisses.

“The leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring Britain’s orderly withdrawal from the European Union,” May’s office said in a statement.

While they discussed Brexit, Germany’s opposition liberal FDP party drove an advertising van past the Chancellery with a slogan reading: “Dear Theresa May. Just do it. Stop Brexit. Make the most of Europe’s opportunities.”

In preparation for the emergency summit, the EU’s second in two weeks, foreign and Europe ministers met in Strasbourg.

Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was ready to grant a delay, but added: “Any extension should serve a purpose. The length should be proportional to the objective. Our objective is an orderly withdrawal.”

“‘No-deal’ will never be the EU’s decision. In order to avoid ‘no-deal’, the UK needs to agree to a deal,” he told a news conference in Luxembourg.

A nine-month extension to Dec. 31 was gaining favor in Brussels, diplomats said.

But officials are also trying to come up with ways to pressure the British to take a decision sooner rather than later – in part, by offering a long delay that pro-Brexit critics of May’s deal fear might mean Brexit never happens.

In London, British Solicitor General Robert Buckland said May would “listen carefully” to any constructive suggestions made by the EU on the length of the extension. He conceded that the government might not have managed to ratify an exit deal in parliament before European elections are held on May 23-26.

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.

DIVIDED KINGDOM

The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom split 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 yet resolved.

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.

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 potentially a second referendum on any deal.

Asked before talks if the government had shown any willingness to countenance 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.”

McDonnell said a customs union with the EU, seen as the most likely area for compromise but so far resisted by May’s government, was the first item on the agenda for the talks, which were to include finance minister Philip Hammond.

The idea of a softer Brexit is anathema to eurosceptics in May’s Conservative party who have helped to defeat her divorce deal three times this year.

Meanwhile, British lawmakers on Tuesday approved by a 420-110 margin May’s plan to seek to delay Brexit to June 30 while she tries to reach a compromise with Labour.

The government was forced to hold the vote after parliament passed a law on Monday giving themselves power to scrutinize and make changes to May’s request to extend the Article 50 negotiating period a second time.

Without an extension, Britain would leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday without transition arrangements to cushion the economic shock.