- The EU has approved a request by the UK to extend the Brexit deadline
- The new deadline is October 31, 2019
After much speculation, a decision has been reached by the EU regarding an extension for the Brexit process.
It all started with multiple rejections of Brexit deals by the British parliament and even calls by the public to cancel Brexit. The Brexit deadline was first extended past the March 29, 2019 deadline and parliament then elected to take over the Brexit process and Prime Minister Theresa May then had meetings with the opposition leader Jeremy Corby to try and reach a compromise. Following this, parliament then voted to request a Brexit Extension from the EU.
Now, on April 11, 2019, It has been announced that the EU has approved an extension of Brexit until October 31, 2019.
Time to Converge
Speaking to the press, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the extension had indeed been granted.
“I have just met with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, where I agreed to an extension to the Brexit process to the end of October at the latest,” she said.
The extension deal also allows the UK to leave earlier if they are able to pass a Brexit agreement before then. May had hoped to receive an extension no further than June 30 but it seems that EU leaders were not convinced that a deal could be passed before then.
Even then, this extension is actually shorter than what some in the EU had hoped for.
“This extension is as flexible as I expected and a little bit shorter than I expected, but it is still enough to find the best possible solution,” said President of the European Council Donald Tusk, who also urged the UK not to waste this opportunity.
This also means that the UK will have to participate in the European Parliament elections in May, something that Theresa May has been trying to avoid. However, it is better than leaving the EU with no deal at all, which is an outcome that both political parties in Britain had been wary of.
At the same time, the European Council President Donald Tusk has also hinted that the Brexit process could be scrapped altogether.
“Until the end of this period, the UK will also have the possibility to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit altogether,” Tusk said.
