UK, EU Decide To Take More Time to Get Brexit Right

Local Editor

Leaders from the European Union and the United Kingdom shrugged off a weekend negotiating debacle and previous deadlines Wednesday, giving themselves several more weeks to clinch a friendly divorce deal ahead of their separation.

After the EU insisted for months that this week’s summit was a key meeting to get a deal, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said: “We need much time, much more time and we continue to work in the next weeks” with his British counterpart.

Relatively, British Prime Minister Theresa May also spoke about “working intensively over the next days and weeks” to achieve agreement that avoids a no-deal departure from the bloc on March 29 that could create chaos at the borders and in the economy. A deal must be sealed soon so parliaments have time to give their verdict on it.

Underscoring the newfound sense of non-urgency, Austrian PM Sebastian Kurz, which holds the rotating EU presidency, even spoke of the “coming weeks and months” to get a deal and sought to impose a soothing calm.

“There’s no need to dramatize matters. It’s always the case with negotiations, that in the end there are challenges,” he said.

May addressed other EU leaders before they gathered for dinner to assess the state of Brexit talks.

May urged her counterparts to redouble efforts to find the way to a deal, but European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said she did offer them concrete new proposals.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team