The European Union is considering telling British Prime Minister Theresa May that if she can't get Britain's exit deal through Parliament and wants to delay the departure date, the country will have to stay in the bloc until 2021.
Three European officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior EU figures and several governments back an extension of as much as 21 months beyond the scheduled March 29 exit day.
May is trying to get the EU to make changes to her exit deal so that members of Parliament can accept it. But diplomats in Brussels and European capitals increasingly think that nothing they offer will convince enough of them, the officials said.
"If by the beginning of March there's no support for the deal then I think it would be good to postpone Brexit because a no-deal scenario is bad for the EU but extremely bad for the U.K.," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told reporters, using the colloquial term for the British exit, as he arrived for an EU-Arab League summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday.
Offering only a long extension will be seen in the U.K. as a way of frightening pro-exit lawmakers into backing May's deal, as they would have to decide between May's version of the departure and the risk that a long extension would mean the exit gets stopped altogether.
But EU officials said postponing the exit would allow time to get back around the negotiating table to thrash out a far more comprehensive plan for future trade ties. The idea has been floated with the British side, the officials said.
While the 21-month plan is gaining support in the EU -- including with senior officials in the European Commission and in the European Council chaired by EU President Donald Tusk -- it is by no means certain. Several countries want only a short extension while others are reluctant to grant one at all without a firm U.K. plan to break the deadlock, officials said.
Under the rules of the exit negotiating process, any delay to Britain's departure would have to be requested by the U.K. and agreed to by all the 27 remaining EU governments.
"We want to leave the European Union on March 29 with a deal," May said on the way into the summit. "That's what we're working for and we've had good progress, constructive discussions with the European Union and we'll be continuing that work so we can leave on March 29 and leave with a deal."
EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Sunday the U.K. has 33 days to state what it wants regarding its exit from the bloc.
"It's up to the U.K. now," Moscovici said in a interview with French radio Europe 1. "In the 33 days that are left, it must say what it wants."
Information for this article was contributed by Patrick Donahue and Angeline Benoit of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 02/25/2019