Emmanuel Macron has warned that France may not agree to a delay to Brexit unless Theresa May makes it clear she needs the extra time to embark on a completely new strategy.
The British prime minister announced on Tuesday that if the House of Commons votes down her deal, she will give it the option of halting a no-deal exit and seeking an extension of the Article 50 exit process.
But, speaking next to German chancellor Angela Merkel at an Elysée palace press conference, the French president said a delay might not be accepted by France “without a clear understanding of the aim that’s being pursued”, suggesting he would not tolerate another three months of haggling over the same deal.
Mr Macron added: “If the British need more time, we will be able to examine a request for an extension if it’s justified by new choices on the part of the British.”
Ms Merkel struck a softer tone, saying: “If Britain needs more time we will not say no. “We want an orderly exit of the UK from the EU.”
An Article 50 extension needs to be agreed by all 27 remaining EU states.
Mr Macron’s comments add to the pressure on Mrs May’s Conservative Eurosceptic MPs and her parliamentary allies in Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, since they suggest he expects her to tack to a softer form of Brexit that could command cross-party support at Westminster. This is anathema to many Brexiters.
Downing Street insiders say that, despite last month’s record 230 vote defeat for Mrs May’s agreement, they can win a vote on a revised deal, which will be held by March 12. The DUP’s ten MPs are believed to hold the key to victory.
“Relations are much better with the DUP, but everything depends on us securing a better deal in Brussels,” said one ally of Mrs May. “There is some cause for hope.”
But EU diplomats fear that the UK government is taking a “Panglossian”, or overly optimistic, view of what is possible in talks with Brussels.
Geoffrey Cox, the attorney-general, has been in the Belgian capital this week trying to secure “legally binding changes” to Britain’s exit deal to make it clear that the backstop plan for the Irish border cannot be permanent.
Eurosceptics loathe the backstop, which they say could “trap” the UK in a customs union with Brussels. But one member of the pro-Brexit Conservative European Research Group said: “If the DUP back the deal, so will we. We would be in a ludicrous position if we were seen as more unionist than the unionists.”
Despite Mr Macron and Ms Merkel’s repeated opposition to any reopening of the 585-page withdrawal treaty, both the DUP and senior ERG members say they are open to other legal mechanisms to guarantee that the backstop is temporary.
One DUP official said: “We are giving Theresa May space and have to wait and see what she gets back from Brussels before we make a judgment.
source: Financial times
