With negotiations over Britain’s withdrawal from the EU at an impasse, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May arrived at what was supposed to be a climactic EU leaders’ summit with no new proposals to unlock the vexed Irish border question.
As Politico reports the British government is, “though, now “ready to consider” the notion of a longer transition period — something May indicated in a 15-minute, pre-dinner address to EU27 leaders, a senior EU official said. That in itself is a remarkable turnaround after months of insisting that just under two years was sufficient amid Brexiteer angst that Britain could not tolerate being subject to EU laws (and financial demands) for a moment longer.”
The biggest issue is whether such a position would help the negotiations or complicate them further by enflaming Brexiteers back home, and it does not solve the fundamental problem in the negotiations or bring a solution closer.
In Wednesday we learnt how Theresa May rejected an EU offer designed to rescue a Brexit deal because it would add billions more to the £39bn “divorce bill”. We also learnt that the EU expressed its willingness to extend transition period. In the meantime German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany is having a no-deal Brexit plan while France published no deal law on website.
The possibility of an extension wasn’t welcomed back home, with the main UK newspapers describing this possibility as an extension of Brexit Limbo and Brextra Time.
Apart from the tough nuts to unlock in Brussels, it is evident that there are even bigger issues within its government and home.
The Guardian provides a review of the main headlines in the British media. The Daily Mail is scathing: “Another year in Brexit limbo?”, asks the paper’s shrill headline, reporting that the “PM ‘could make UK wait even longer’ to avoid no-deal cliff edge (but we’d have to keep paying EU billions)”. The Mail says delaying leaving the bloc until the end of 2021 means it won’t happen until “five and a half years after the vote to leave”. Also furious is the Sun, which goes with the headline “Brextra time!”, saying “UK could be under control of EU for one more year”.
Their lead picture is of Jean-Claude Juncker and Theresa May greeting one another with a kiss, with the fairly dramatic caption: “Is this the kiss of death?” The FT also has the kiss on its front page, with a caption “Kiss and tell”. But its main story is about the US threatening EU banks if Brussels refuses to water down post-Brexit plans to oversee clearing houses. The i’s headline coveys the news without the outrage: “May open to Brexit extension in bid to save deal”. The paper also reports that UK citizens may need visas to visit France. The Daily Telegraph’s headline is “May offers to extend transition by a year”, saying that the PM is “playing for time”. The Guardian leads on Brexit but takes a different tack, focusing on Donald Tusk’s demand that May provide “new facts” to help unblock Brexit talks.
