Press Advisories

11. 4. 201918:31

Prime Minister: I am pleased that we have agreed to extend the Brexit negotiations

On the evening of 10 April 2019, the Heads of Governments of the EU Member States met at an extraordinary summit on Article 50 of the EU Treaty, i.e. to discuss further action on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The main theme of the evening was the possibility of extending the Brexit negotiations. The Czech delegation was led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

Leaders of EU27 Member States met for the second time this year to avert the “no deal Brexit” scenario, which, following the European Council’s decision of 22 March 2019 to extend the time limit, would otherwise have taken place at midnight from Friday, 12 April 2019 to Saturday, 13 April 2019, Central European Time.

The EU27 negotiations were preceded by negotiations with the European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and British Prime Minister Theresa May. The UK Prime Minister’s opening speech was followed by an hour-long exchange of views with EU27 leaders on the next steps the British government is considering to ensure the ratification of the exit agreement. The British Prime Minister asked for a further extension, reiterated her commitment to hold the European Parliament elections in May and promised to seek an inter-partisan compromise to ratify the UK exit agreement by the end of May.

In the ensuing debate over the draft European Council conclusions among EU27 leaders, which continued until the early hours of the morning, the length of the potential extension and the conditions for this step were primarily discussed.                                 

“I am pleased that we have agreed to extend the Brexit negotiations. This averts the risk of no-deal Brexit this Friday. I welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s proactive approach, not only her letter from the end of last week, but also the explanation she gave today. I am therefore pleased to confirm that the negotiations will be extended until 31 October 2019 with a review in June”, commented Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on the meeting.

The agreed deadline is a compromise between a longer extension until 31 December 2019 / 31 March 2020 and a shorter option until 22 May 2019 / 30 June 2019, and follows up on the last day of the mandate of the current European Commission.