BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on Brexit (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
Labour lawmaker Hilary Benn says Prime Minister Theresa May needs to start considering alternatives to her divorce deal with the European Union to avert the crisis a no-deal Brexit would bring.
The day after EU leaders agreed to extend the deadline for Britain’s departure, Benn told the BBC “this is a crisis delayed but this is not a crisis avoided, and we need to get on with it.”
Benn, the leader of the House of Commons’ Brexit Committee, is calling for debate on alternative proposals to begin Wednesday but says this won’t work if May is “not prepared to move an inch.”
Benn says it is time to “open up this process” because Parliament has already rejected the prime minister’s deal and the option of leaving without a deal.
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10:45 a.m.
Croatia’s prime minister says European Union leaders are protecting their citizens and businesses by setting strict deadlines for Britain’s departure from the bloc given the impasse in the U.K.
Andrej Plenkovic said Friday that “we are saving the stability, credibility, and reliability of legal system of the union and its institutions and the decisions which are taken.”
EU leaders have granted a Brexit delay until May 22 should Prime Minister Theresa May convince Parliament to accept her deal, or failing that until April 12 to take an entirely new approach.
Plenkovic says Croatian citizens want to know whether they will have 12 candidates in the May 23-26 EU polls or only 11, if Britain remains a member country.
He regrets the result of the Brexit referendum in Britain in 2016 and says EU leaders “are negotiating something we didn’t want.”
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8:05 a.m.
European Union leaders are gathering again Friday after deciding that the political crisis in Britain over Brexit poses too great a threat to the world’s biggest trading bloc.
In a move that underlined their loss of confidence in British Prime Minister Theresa May, the leaders, set two deadlines for Britain to leave or to take an entirely new path in considering its EU future.
At marathon late night talks, the leaders rejected May’s request to extend the Brexit deadline from March 29 — just one week away — until June 30.
They agree to delay only until May 22, on the eve of EU elections, if she can persuade Britain’s Parliament to endorse the Brexit deal. Failing that, May would have until April 12 to choose a new path.
