Theresa May is to travel to Berlin and Paris for talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, a day before a critical EU summit that will discuss Britain’s request for a delay to the date for its exit from the bloc.
The UK prime minister wants to delay the exit date, which was first scheduled for March 29 and then later postponed to April 12, until June 30.
Mrs May is due to visit Germany first and then travel to France. The Elysée Palace said she was due to meet the French president for a “work meeting” on Tuesday evening to prepare for the summit the following day.
Ms Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the main talks on the request for a delay would be with the remaining 27 EU member states in Brussels on Wednesday but that it made sense for the UK and Germany to talk before the summit, too.
“In the kind of difficult and volatile situation that Britain and the EU27 currently find themselves, just a few days before the exit date, there are always good reasons to talk to each other,” he said
Germany has indicated that it is inclined to accede to Mrs May’s request for a little more time, while Mr Macron has taken a harder line than Ms Merkel, at least in public, and spoken out against a long delay to the exit date.
For the German chancellor, the priority has long been to ensure a managed and agreed Brexit. By contrast, Mr Macron has told other EU leaders that it may be best to get Brexit over with rather quickly than let Westminster hold the other 27 member states hostage.
But senior officials and diplomats in Paris, Brussels and other European capitals doubt that Mr Macron will stand alone against more emollient EU leaders and be the one to finally pull the plug on the British.
