European Council President Donald Tusk (C)
European Council President Donald Tusk told the European Parliament on Wednesday that he would be ready to call a special summit on Brexit whenever negotiators said "decisive progress" had been made toward a deal.
Briefing lawmakers on last week's regular summit, Tusk recalled that EU leaders had agreed that they would meet again to endorse a deal if their negotiator Michel Barnier judged that enough progress toward a deal had been made. A meeting pencilled in for Nov. 17-18 is still on hold.
"I stand ready to convene a European Council, if and when the Union negotiator reports that decisive progress has been made," Tusk said. "The Brexit talks continue with the aim of reaching a deal," he added, saying no one wanted talks to fail.
He repeated that he believed leaders would extend Britain's status-quo transition period after Brexit in March if London asked for that -- an issue May raised at the summit.
"It was made clear by the UK that more time is needed to find a precise solution," Tusk said. "Therefore, there is no other way but to continue the talks. Leaders expressed their full trust and support for Michel Barnier."
UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan could leave Britain in a "long running" multiyear transition period, the London Times reported on Wednesday citing leaked documents seen by the newspaper.According to the leaked documents, the plan "could in theory, lead to a long running IP (implementation period)" and the arrangement could last for many years on a "rolling" basis with an "annual decision point" where any transition extension is reviewed, the Times reported http://bit.ly/2EJ625L.The documents were drawn up by May's principal Europe adviser, Oliver Robbins, on instructions from May's office, according to the report.Northern Irish DUP to back rebel Brexit amendmentThe documents reveal that cabinet ministers have been presented with different models to work out what would happen if a trade deal to govern UK's future relationship with the EU was not reached by the end of the transition period, the Times said.With just over five months until Britain is scheduled to leave the EU, Brexit talks have stalled over a disagreement on the so-called Northern Irish "backstop", an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if a future trading relationship is not agreed in time.May again failed to clinch a deal at an EU summit last week and her decision to signal the possibility of extending a post-Brexit transition period, keeping Britain under EU governance with no say in it, to help end the deadlock, has angered both hardline supporters of Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers. Ireland says Brexit transition extension can't be alternative to Irish backstop
UK PM May's Brexit transition plan could last for years