'Brussels don't want Brexiteer MEPs!' EU will REBUKE Remainer hopes of delaying Brexit

Brussels and the European Union's 27 member-states could humiliate British Remainers by insisting on the UK's March 29th deadline for leaving the EU.

کد خبر: ۸۶۲۸۹۵

تاریخ: ۰۲ دی ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۸:۴۱

The European Union bombshell comes amid growing momentum among campaigners to scrap Article 50 and stay inside the EU.

Others have urged the Government to extend the Article 50 process to allow a second referendum to take place.

However, Spectator’s James Forsyth claims that delaying Article 50, which mandates Britain to leave the EU in March 2019, was not as simple as it seemed.

Speaking to The Week In Westminster, the political correspondent said: “I think if there is a delay, it will be only be a matter of weeks.

“I don’t see delaying it for any further length of time as realistic because it bumps up against the European election.

“The one thing I can bet you is that if the UK stays into May and contends the European elections, having extending Article 50, we will send a very large contingent of Eurosceptics MEPs to the European Parliament.

“That will affect the balance of power there and the rest of Europe will not want that.”

The European elections, when EU citizens elect MEPs, is set to take place at the end of May next year.

There is mounting concern within the EU establishment that populist, eurosceptic MEPs could secure a decisive victory in the vote.

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel want Brexit to be concluded before then so that the negotiations do not impact the results.

Eurosceptic parties across the bloc have sought to capitalise on the anti-EU rhetoric that the Brexit referendum has caused.

A Bundestag member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Petr Bystro recently said that the EU parliamentary elections in 2019 will be a landslide for the new Eurosceptic parties

He said: "We hope to combine as many of these parties as possible into a strong, conservative, Eurosceptic group that will be able to exert real power in Brussels."

Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, a senior leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star-Movement in Italy, echoed this prediction.

He has said that “citizens will vote in the European elections and will cause a big shake up. We are ready to discuss things around the table, but they cannot ask us to massacre Italians.”

In Britain, cabinet ministers have sought legal advice on the process of extending Article 50.

But, the latest rulings have suggested that any delay past July 2 would create legal challenges since Britain would have to vote for new MEPs.

At the same time, senior Labour and Conservative MPs have ramped up efforts to block the possibility of a no-deal Brexit with a plan to mandate Theresa May to extend or cancel Article 50 if the prospect of crashing out looms.

The amendment is expected to be voted on when the House of Commons returns from the Christmas recess.