London: Prime Minister Theresa May asked the European Union on Friday to delay Britain’s departure until June 30 while the bloc itself suggested that it might be best to postpone the split for up to a year.
The competing visions of how to unwind Brita-in’s 46-year involvement in the European project will be hashed out again at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels Wednesday — a clash analysts said Ms May is likely to lose.
The current Brexit dea-dline of April 12 has alr-eady been pushed back once from March 29 beca-use of the UK Parliame-nt’s failure on three occasions to back the deal Ms May signed with the other 27 EU leaders in December. Her formal re-quest to EU Council chief Donald Tusk said Britain proposes that the delay “should end on June 30 2019” — the same date she asked for at the last EU summit last month.
“If the parties are able to ratify before this date, the government proposes that the period should be terminated earlier,” Ms May wrote in a letter rel-eased by Downing Street.
