Live Updates
After an exhausting and dramatic day in Brussels, we’re wrapping up our live coverage.
We’ll be back tomorrow, when the Brexit drama will move back to London as Theresa May makes frantic pleas to lawmakers, in an attempt to push her deal over the line.
The final question to May came from a reporter with the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. He noted that May pinned the blame over the Brexit impasse on British lawmakers yesterday and asked if she took any blame herself – and would she have done anything differently in her negotiations with the EU?
This reporter is clearly not familiar with the famously stubborn British Prime Minister.
Predictably enough, May doesn’t give a direct answer.
“Throughout these negotiations, of course they’ve been tough … I believe any negotiation involves a degree of compromise,” she says. But she says she has reached a good deal with the EU.
“I believe we have got a good deal on the table,” she says, adding that the EU’s decision today provides “a very clear framework” for MPs to consider when they vote on her deal next week.
In short: No.
May is asked about the petition to revoke Article 50 – the legal process by which the UK is leaving the EU – that has now amassed over 2 million signatures, and whether she accepts that the mood of the public may have shifted in three years.
She does not. “We didn’t say ‘tell us what you think and we’ll think about it,’” she says.
A Daily Mail reporter asks her bluntly if Brexit will ever happen. Her reply:
The unanswered question: Whether she will still be Prime Minister when it happens.
May explains the agreement on the Brexit delay to reporters. If Parliament once again fails to approve her overall Withdrawal Agreement next week, Britain would either leave the EU with no deal on April 12 “or put forward an alternative plan.”
If that alternative plan involved a further extension, it would mean taking part in elections to the European Parliament. She reiterated her opposition to that idea.
She plans to return to London on Friday and begin the process of persuading Members of Parliament to back her deal. “Tomorrow morning I will be returning to the UK and working hard” to push her deal over the line, May says.
She expressed a hint of contrition for the tone of her remarks in Downing Street yesterday, which came in for wide criticism.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is speaking now.
Donald Tusk once said there was a “special place in hell” for those who promoted Brexit “without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.”
At the press conference in Brussels, he was asked whether hell should be extended to include British MPs, if they vote down May’s Brexit deal next week.
“Don’t go to hell,” Juncker adds.
And with that, the two Presidents leave the stage. Eyes are now on Theresa May’s news conference, which will start soon.
Juncker and Tusk took a few questions from reporters.
Asked how long a long delay would be, Juncker replied simply: “Until the end.”
There had been reports that May’s 90-minute presentation had not gone down well. But Tusk then said that the atmosphere of the talks “was much better than I expected, and better than for example in December – not only because of the weather but also because of the mood. But frankly speaking, our mood is not the most important thing here.”
Tusk acknowledged the gravity of the situation:
Juncker said the EU’s patience had been tested but had not run out. “The atmosphere was good and frankly we are yet to see what the limits of our patience are,” he said,
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he hoped the House of Commons would approve the Withdrawal Agreement next week. “We are hopeful that the agreement will be adopted by the House of Commons,” Juncker says of the agreed Brexit deal. If it is, Brexit will be delayed until May 22.
However he said the EU was ready for all scenarios. “Ladies and gentlemen, whatever happens we are ready for every eventuality, including the absence of an agreement to Brexit, the so-called “no deal.”
“Emergency measures are in place and we are continuing to prepare” for the “difficulties a hard Brexit would create,” he adds.
“This has been a long haul but we’ve got to look forward now. The clock is ticking not only for Brexit but for other things too.”
Tusk lays out the two-part extension agreed earlier, and confirms Theresa May agreed to the plan when he met her after the meeting.
Here’s what Tusk said:
European Council President Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are speaking now.
EU leaders have come up with a two-part plan designed to avoid Britain crashing out without a deal on March 29.
According to the final text of the deal, leaders agreed to delay the Brexit process until May 22, if Theresa May can secure approval to the Withdrawal Agreement in the UK Parliament next week.
If May’s deal fails, the UK’s membership of the EU will be extended unconditionally until April 12, by which point the EU Council “expects the United Kingdom to indicate a way forward”.
European Council President Donald Tusk says the heads of the 27 remaining EU nations have finally agreed on their response to Theresa May’s request for a Brexit extension. He’s now heading to meet Theresa May.
When diplomatic summits go on like this, with talks stretching into dinner and press conferences delayed, it’s a sure sign that participants are having trouble coming to agreement.
Usually, in advance of EU summits, officials hash out everything well in advance and leaders arrive ready to rubber stamp their conclusions. Not so this time.
But, after a marathon day of talks, it appears that EU leaders are inching towards a consensus. “The text is approaching stable,” one EU diplomat tells CNN.
Once EU leaders agree to a text, we’ll see European Council President Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference, followed by a statement by British Prime Minister Theresa May.
For nearly three years, the EU has presented a united front on Brexit. But behind closed doors in tonight’s eleventh-hour talks, that unity is being tested as European leaders tussle over a series of different scenarios, an EU diplomat tells CNN.
The reality is dawning on leaders that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is highly unlikely to win a vote in parliament next week, the diplomat adds. So leaders are considering whether to set aside Donald Tusk’s proposal to make an extension conditional on that vote, and instead build into the delay a contingency plan for when – not if – May’s deal fails.
“Everybody has different views on how to proceed but the overall goal is to decide in the common interest of the EU,” the diplomat says. “This discussion shows how crucial this question is for the European Union as a whole.”
What that means: Theresa May’s 90-minute presentation to leaders was so disappointing that it appeared to push leaders towards the accepting that her third meaningful vote stands virtually no chance of success. That changed the complexion of the talks.
The British Ministry of Defence has put 3,500 troops on standby to “aid contingency plans” for a no-deal Brexit, a spokesman told CNN on Thursday.
The contingency plans are part of Operation Redfold, the British military’s crisis management operation in the event the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal. A spokesman also told CNN that Pindar, the UK’s military bunker based under the Ministry of Defence, became “operational” on Monday as part of the operation.
Pindar is a defense crisis-management center used to plan for significant UK operations. In the past it was used to support preparations for the 2012 London Olympics.
In a statement sent to CNN, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said:
More than an hour after Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker were due to give a news conference, EU leaders are still locked in discussions. It’s looking like this could be a long night in Brussels.
It’s becoming clear that leaders have moved on from Tusk’s earlier suggestion of a specific extension, and are putting forward various different dates and proposals.
Crucially, EU leaders are discussing the possibility of dropping the suggestion by Tusk that any extension be conditional on the UK Parliament approving May’s withdrawal deal.
It also seems that European elections in May – and the April 11 deadline for Britain to declare whether it is taking part in them – are a complicating factor in the talks.
Theresa May spoke for around 90 minutes during the meeting. But leaders were apparently unimpressed by her inability to present a clear strategy in the event her deal is defeated in parliament next week. She provided “no answers, no clarity, and no direction,” one diplomat told CNN.
This post has been updated.
Back in the United Kingdom, Theresa May is facing a furious backlash from lawmakers after she blamed them for delaying Brexit – with some saying they have received verbal and physical threats.
Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle says he was attacked by a man in his constituency. The MP, who was with a TV crew from CNN affiliate ITV News at the time, linked the assault to May’s claim that lawmakers were holding up Brexit.
“A man came up and started shouting at the TV crew and me. Saying MPs are the problems & we are traitors,” Russell-Moyle tweeted.
“A minority will fall for hate or division of May but attacks like this afternoon’s will not make me frit. Only by standing up & not pandering will we gain decency for our nation,” he added, before urging people to join Saturday’s march in London calling for a second referendum.
Anna Soubry, who quit the Conservative Party last month over Brexit, said that she had faced “very, very serious” death threats and is unable to travel home this weekend as a result, according to Britain’s Press Association.
Members of Parliament have been advised to take taxis home, over fears that they could be attacked by members of the public over the handling of Brexit.
Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the Presidents of the EU Council and the European Commission, will be holding a news conference soon.
That will be immediately followed by a news conference from Theresa May.
The EU will agree to extend the Brexit process until May 22, according to a leaked draft statement from an EU council meeting in Brussels. Prime Minister Theresa May had requested a delay until June 30.
The extension to the withdrawal process is also contingent upon UK Parliament passing May’s negotiated divorce deal, two EU diplomats have told CNN. The statement is still in draft form.
Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Lithuanian President, has told CNN that EU leaders have agreed in principle to grant an extension to the Brexit process, but have not finalized the length of the extension.
Asked if leaders have reached a decision, Grybauskaitė, who left the meeting room to talk to CNN, said: “Not yet, we are in the middle of discussions.” But she added:
She added that, as widely anticipated, the agreement will be conditional on the UK Parliament approving the withdrawal agreement. “Today we will give only (a) promise to extend, but the final date and decision will be confirmed only conditionally, if the UK parliament next week will vote for the deal which is agreed already,” Grybauskaitė added.
“If not, we will be in trouble – all of us. And again next Thursday, highly likely, we’re meeting for extraordinary meeting.”
Grybauskaitė said May 22 is a “more secure” date for the extension, because European elections begin after that date. But if Theresa May succeeds in passing her withdrawal agreement at the third attempt next week, “the discussion could be opened” for a technical extension until June 30, she said.
