"Perspectives are not visible": why does the European Parliament call for Brexit to be held until April 18

The exit of Great Britain from the European Union can be postponed maximum until April 18. This was stated by the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani. Brexit was originally scheduled for March 29th.

“I asked the EU summit that the delay be as short as possible and maximum until April 18,” he said on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels.

April 18 is the last day when the European Parliament can ratify the agreement with the United Kingdom, since elections to this European body will be held in May, Tajani explained.

At the same time on the eve of the British Prime Minister Theresa May in an official letter to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk appealed to the EU with a request to postpone the start of brexit until June 30.

“If the voting is successful, the postponement will give Parliament time to review the terms of the agreement. If not, then Parliament will have to decide how to proceed. But as prime minister, I am not ready to postpone the start of Brexit to a date later than June 30, ”she said.

Such a reduction in terms - from June 30 to April 18 - is an unpleasant surprise for May, who needs time to convince parliamentarians to support her Brexit project, said political scientist Alexander Asafov.

“She thought that understanding was achieved, given the last round of voting, although she was repeatedly told that all 27 countries of the European Union had to agree,” he told RT.

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“There will be serious bureaucratic problems”

At the same time, the European Union, on the contrary, seeks to accelerate the process of concluding an agreement so that in the elections to the European Parliament there is no need to take the UK into account, said Gevorg Mirzayan, associate professor at the Department of Political Science at the Financial University under the Russian government.

“If a miracle does not happen and the UK does not decide to stay in the European Union, of course, there should not be deputies from the UK in the EP. And they have almost a ten percent quota there. If they are re-elected, they will have to look for someone in their place, hold new elections, reduce the number of deputies in this cadence. That is, there will be serious bureaucratic problems that no one wants to deal with, ”he said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, in a conversation with the British parliamentarians, May specified that she did not intend to postpone the launch of the procedure for leaving the EU at a later date than June 30. She also announced plans to submit a brexit deal for the third time to parliament.

Two major EU officials responded to the appeal of May. The head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said that for Brexit a “short delay” is possible, but subject to the positive verdict of the British parliament on the deal with the EU.

The head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, advised the UK to make Brexit before the elections to the European Parliament, which are scheduled for May 23.

In this case, the fact that the British Parliament has not yet adopted a document on Brexit, Mei accused the legislators of the United Kingdom.

“I’m sure that society is sick of it. You are tired of what parliamentarians say only about Brexit. You are concerned about this, I am on your side. The time has come for the Parliament to make a decision, ”the Prime Minister’s statement said.

“Delay the inevitable”

Note that the original plan ordered the UK to begin withdrawal from the EU on March 29, 2019. In January 2019, May failed to obtain parliamentary approval for the deal she had agreed upon, which resulted in several scenarios: withdrawal from the EU without a deal, as well as postponement or cancellation of brexit.

In mid-January, the May government held out for a vote of no-confidence vote initiated by Laborites leader Jeremy Corbin. At the end of the month, the British Prime Minister introduced a new version of the draft agreement on exit from the EU.

However, in mid-March, two weeks before the start of Brexit, the parliament again did not approve the deal, after which the deputies voted against a “hard” withdrawal from the EU without an agreement. Still later, the parliament spoke in favor of postponing Brexit.

According to Mirzayan, the situation of “tough” Brexit in this situation is almost without alternative.

“In principle, everything that happens is Teresa May, who is trying to chop the tail of the snake in pieces and trying somehow to postpone the inevitable - the collapse of the negotiations, tough brexit and her political funeral. So far, no positive perspectives are visible, ”the political scientist concluded.