AFP, Paris :
The European Union could push back the looming March 29 Brexit deadline if London made such a request, France’s Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on Wednesday.
“At the time of speaking, it’s just a theory because Mrs May has never asked for it and neither has anyone in her entourage,” Loiseau told France Inter radio.
“Legally, technically, it’s possible. The British need to ask for it and
there needs to be a unanimous agreement among the 27 other members of the
European Union to say: ‘Alright, you chose March 29 as the leaving date…
She added: “But for how long, and to do what? Because if it’s to tell us that they need more European concessions, that is going to be complicated.”
Her comments came the morning after Britain’s parliament overwhelmingly rejected the deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May to leave the EU.
Loiseau stressed that other EU nations considered the deal already on the table to be “the only one possible”.
“The agreement cannot be looked at again,” Loiseau said.
“We have really explored all the options. If you want an orderly separation which allows Britain to stay close to the European Union in the future, this is the agreement,” she added.
“The other options… are either no deal, or no Brexit.”
In a message to Britain, she said: “Hurry up… March 29 is right around the corner.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday that delaying Brexit beyond March 29 would make no “sense”.
“It would only make sense (to extend the deadline) if there is a path to the goal of a deal between the EU and Great Britain,” Maas said in an interview on Deutschlandfunk public radio.
For now, “that is not the majority view in the British parliament,” he added.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also this week argued that Brexit should not be pushed back, although she did not rule it out completely.
Mr. Maas added that he was doubtful any significant improvements could be made to the draft withdrawal agreement on the table – negotiated over two years since London notified Brussels it would quit the European Union.
“We have a compromise,” Mr. Maas said. “If more could have been offered, it would have been done weeks ago.”
The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician added that he hoped a no-confidence vote Wednesday fails to topple Ms. May’s government.
“We need a stable government for the negotiations,” he said.
Ms. May’s hard-fought Brexit deal suffered the worst defeat for any British leader in history Tuesday night, as 432 MPs voted against and just 202 in favour-leaving the country’s future foggy with its legally binding departure date just 10 weeks away
