LONDON (AP) — The Latest on the negotiations on Brexit (all times local):
9:35 a.m.
A senior German official says Berlin would want to see “something substantially new” put on the table to justify delaying Brexit.
British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will give British lawmakers a choice of approving her divorce agreement, leaving the EU March 29 without a deal or asking to delay Brexit by up to three months. A delay would require other EU members’ approval.
Michael Roth, a German deputy foreign minister, told ZDF television Wednesday that “for us as the German government, it is important that something substantially new be put on the table that justifies a delay.”
He added that “if we can really achieve something new with a delay, and if we then reach a sensible decision, we are the last people who will stand in the way.”
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9:25 a.m.
The head of one of Britain’s biggest business organizations says Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to allow lawmakers to delay the country’s exit from the European Union provides an “option on sanity.”
May on Tuesday said Parliament will get the chance to delay Britain’s scheduled March 29 departure if lawmakers fail to approve the divorce agreement with the bloc.
Confederation of British Industry head Carolyn Fairbairn told the BBC on Wednesday that neither business nor the government is ready to leave, and exiting without a deal would be “a wrecking ball on our economy.”
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay refused to take the possibility of a no-deal Brexit off the table, however, telling the BBC: “It will be for Parliament to decide.”
