Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, has warned MEPs they should remain open to a long Brexit extension or risk “betraying” pro-EU voters.
Speaking to lawmakers in Strasbourg, Mr Tusk hit back at criticism he received for saying the EU should be open to extending the Brexit negotiating period if the UK government decides to hold new EU elections in May.
“There were voices saying this would be harmful or inconvenient to some of you,” said Mr Tusk. “Let me be clear, Such thinking is unacceptable. You cannot betray the six million people who signed the petition to revoke Article 50. Or the one million who marched. Or the increasing majority of people who want to remain in the EU.”
“They may not feel sufficiently represented by their own parliament. They must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber because they are Europeans,” he added.
Mr Tusk repeated that if UK MPs do not approve Theresa May’s divorce deal, April 12 will become the new “cliff edge” date that Britain would crash out of the bloc.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit chief, said the start of indicative voting in the House of Commons on Wednesday meant there was some “light at the end of the tunnel”.
He called on MPs to begin cross-party co-operation to form a majority for any kind of Brexit deal.
“We are open to change the political declaration in two senses. First in the way that we can make it more binding than only a declaration. And secondly we can [have] a far more intense relationship between the EU and the UK.”
“This deep relationship will be . . . a seed for the future. I’m pretty sure that, not now, [but] within a few generations there will be a return of Britain in the family of European nations. That is the place of Britain.”
Udo Bullmann, leader of the EU’s centre-left socialist party, called on Brexiter leaders to apologise for the “torture” they have inflicted UK voters.
“It has led the country into a dead end. It’s time to take back control of your stability,” he said.
