May makes pre-summit plea for new Brexit delay

BRUSSELS (AP):

With nearly everyone fully resigned to Britain’s departure from the European Union (EU), two questions took centre stage Tuesday: How – and when – to get the United Kingdom politely out the door.

EU leaders will confront British Prime Minister Theresa May for the second time in three weeks on her government’s delayed plans at an emergency Brexit summit on Wednesday, and such gatherings aren’t getting any friendlier.

The bloc’s leaders have tried to help May over the past two years of negotiations, and even after she missed her hand-picked Brexit date of departure on March 29 because of a parliamentary revolt.

So EU countries, especially France, have become increasingly exasperated with the political division and uncertainty in Britain about a way forward.

On a charm offensive with key leaders, May first flew to Berlin Tuesday to plead for good terms with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then set off for Paris for an encounter with President Emmanuel Macron, seen as her counterpart with the toughest demands.

“France is really trying to play bad cop here,” said Larissa Brunner, an analyst at European Policy Center, referring to French insistence that another extension to her deadline must come with strings attached and assurances from London.