British PM sends unsigned letter seeking Brexit delay

LONDON, United Kingdom — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reluctantly wrote to Brussels late Saturday asking for a Brexit extension after MPs voted to force him into seeking a delay beyond October 31.

But Johnson, who has pinned his premiership on getting Britain out of the European Union on time, refused to sign the letter he sent to European Council President Donald Tusk.


The Conservative leader also sent a second signed letter insisting he was not seeking an extension to the Brexit deadline, which has already been postponed twice.

In a day of high drama in the House of Commons, MPs declined to give their backing to the revised withdrawal agreement Johnson struck with the EU this week until the legislation needed to ratify it has passed.

Having failed to back a divorce deal, they triggered a law requiring Johnson to write to EU leaders by the end of the day asking to delay Brexit, to avoid the risk that Britain crashes out in less than a fortnight.

Johnson sent a photocopy of the letter that was contained in the law requiring him to ask for the delay, but did not sign it, showed a copy released by his Downing Street office early Sunday.

He wrote and signed another letter which made clear he does not want to delay Brexit beyond the end of this month.

“Regrettably, parliament missed the opportunity to inject momentum into the ratification process,” Johnson wrote in the signed letter, regretting that EU leaders would now have to spend yet more time on Brexit.

“A further extension would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners, and the relationship between us. We must bring this process to a conclusion.”

Johnson nonetheless said he remained “confident” of completing the ratification process by October 31.

A third cover letter written by Britain’s EU ambassador Tim Barrow made clear that the Brexit delay request letter was only being sent to comply with the law.


Tusk consults EU chiefs

“I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react,” Tusk said on Twitter.

An EU source told AFP that the process “may take a few days” and declined to comment on the non-signature.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the prime minister had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Tusk.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he had discussed the situation with Johnson and “wished him success in the next stages” in the Commons.

Being forced to send the letter after Saturday’s defeat was a blow to Johnson, who has previously said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than prolong the tortuous process of ending Britain’s 46-year-old membership of the EU.

Brussels urged Britain to explain its plan as soon as possible, while Macron’s office said a new delay to Brexit was “in nobody’s interest”.

Johnson beaten 322-306

Securing the new divorce treaty at Thursday’s EU summit had been a personal victory for the prime minister, a figurehead in the Leave campaign in Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum.

He had spent 48 hours frantically trying to persuade MPs to back it, and won support from many of the eurosceptic Conservatives who had three times rejected a previous divorce agreement secured by his predecessor Theresa May.


But parliament — like the frustrated public — is still bitterly divided over how and even whether Britain should end decades of integration with its closest trading partner.

MPs voted by 322 to 306 to back a motion by former Conservative minister Oliver Letwin that “withholds approval (of the deal) unless and until implementing legislation is passed”.

They were meeting on a Saturday for the first time since the 1982 Falklands War.

While MPs voted inside parliament, outside, more than 100,000 people marched to demand a new referendum that could reverse Brexit.

Demonstrators erupted into cheers at the news from inside the Commons.

“That’s really good, that’s one step away from Brexit,” demonstrator Philip Dobson told AFP.

“Reject Brexit”, “Put It To The People” and “Stop This Madness” read some of the placards at the mass march, where many protesters also waved EU flags.

Legislation next week

The British government will introduce legislation next week to implement the divorce deal, with a first vote as soon as Tuesday.

The government also wants another vote on the deal on Monday, which may not be possible.


There is a chance the deal could pass, and Britain could still leave the EU on October 31, but there remains strong opposition to the agreement among MPs.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

EU leaders say Trump worries them as rhetoric becomes policy

VALLETTA, Malta — European Union leaders on Friday vowed to remain united and defiant in the face of an onslaught of criticism from the new American president that has started to undermine the once-unshakeable trans-Atlantic relationship.

And they hit back in an increasingly grating battle of words, underscoring how they fear that Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric will be turned into policy and further tear apart their troubled bloc.

This week EU chief Donald Tusk moved the US into a “threat” category for the EU, following several negative comments about the 28-nation bloc.

“Maybe the best evidence that we are together in this context was the fact that some of my colleagues have used a new nickname for me, spontaneously, which is ‘our Donald’,” Tusk said Friday at an EU summit in Malta, highlighting the new divisions in the century-old alliance with the US.

French President Francois Hollande said it was unacceptable that Trump could put pressure on the EU through his declarations. And Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite pointed out that it was almost impossible to build a bridge with Trump because “today we’re communicating with the United States mainly on Twitter.”

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that “Trump must be judged by his actions and not by his rhetoric and his election campaign. But now he has delivered enough actions that are worrying.”

“What has happened in the last few days are really not the values I’m fighting for,” Kern’s Luxembourg counterpart, Xavier Bettel, said.

Trump has questioned the NATO alliance linking North America and Europe, calling it “obsolete,” and hopes for a major EU-US trade deal have already taken a deep dive amid worries of new US protectionism under the Trump slogan “America first.”

Adding insult to injury, Trump called the British decision to leave the EU – the most cathartic event in the bloc’s 60-year history – “a tremendous asset and not a tremendous liability.”

For France and Germany, there is only one solution to facing an unpredictable partner.

“Many countries have to realize that their future is first in the European Union, rather than who knows what bilateral relation with the United States,” said Hollande.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “the more strongly we are clear about how we define our role in the world, the better we can tend our trans-Atlantic relations.”

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni saw a “great opportunity” for the EU if the Trump administration turns out to be largely domestic-focused, leaving the way open for Europe to be what he called the “No. 1 trade superpower in the world.”

“The question the EU must pose itself is – can it play a more relevant role than what it’s has played up till now internationally?” Gentiloni said, adding that included being more engaged in defense.

He said an EU summit in Rome next month could be the occasion to rise to the challenge.

And even if Gentiloni said trans-Atlantic relations would survive, it didn’t take away the worries that have been increasing by the day since Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Even though Trump has spoken on the phone with Merkel, Hollande, Tusk and hosted British Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington, Europe keeps searching for how to understand the new American leader.

“Who knows what the president of the United States really wants (on NATO)?” Hollande said of the military alliance uniting most EU member nations with the United States.

As much as some leaders and diplomats are saying that the cornerstones of the EU-US relationship remain intact, the bad vibes are seeping through the ranks of the EU’s member states.

On Friday, the Portuguese parliament voted to condemn Trump’s US travel ban on Muslims and highlighted the United States’ important role in promoting tolerance and human rights.

In Sweden, Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin posted on Facebook a photo of her signing the country’s new climate law while surrounded by seven female staff members. Swedish media noted it resembled photos of Trump in the Oval Office surrounded by only male advisers. –Raf Casert and Frances D’Emilio

* * *

Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Euro zone summit aims to keep Greece in single currency

BRUSSELS - Euro zone leaders will fight to the finish to keep near-bankrupt Greece in the single currency on Sunday after the European Union's chairman canceled a planned summit of all 28 EU leaders that would have been needed in case of a "Grexit".

But leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be required to enact key legislation in parliament from Monday to start restoring the broken trust of his partners in the 19-nation currency union before they will agree to open negotiations on a third bailout, ministers said.

European Council President Donald Tusk announced that he had called off the tentatively planned meeting of EU heads of state and government, saying the euro zone summit to start at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) would "last until we conclude talks on Greece".

Eurogroup finance ministers resumed a meeting suspended after nine hours of acrimonious debate on Greece's application for another three-year loan on the basis of reform proposals Tsipras accepted after long resisting.

A draft statement seen by Reuters said Greece must pass laws to change its value added tax and pension systems, reform bankruptcy rules and strengthen the independence of its statistics office before bailout talks can even start.

"The Eurogroup... came to the conclusion that there is not yet the basis to start the negotiations on a new program," the draft said.

"Only subsequent to legal implementation of the above mentioned measures can negotiations on the memorandum of understanding commence, subject to national procedures having been completed," it said, in a reference to authorization by national parliaments in countries such as Germany.

The draft said Greece needed 7 billion euros by July 20, when it must make a crucial bond redemption to the European Central Bank, and a total of 12 billion euros by mid-August when another ECB payment falls due.

It did not say how those needs would be met. A source said the statement would be handed over to the euro zone leaders and might not be issued before they meet.

Several hardline countries voiced support for a German government paper that recommended Greece take a five-year "time-out" from the euro zone unless it accepted and implemented swiftly much tougher conditions, notably by locking state assets to be privatized in an independent trust to pay down debt.

Argument became so heated that Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem decided to adjourn at midnight and resume talks at 11 a.m. to allow tempers to cool.

"The main obstacle to moving forward is a lack of trust," Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters.

The ministers agreed in principle to seek ways to ease Greece's debt burden by extending loan maturities and other steps stopping short of a "haircut" or writedown, provided Athens first implements reforms.

Greeks see humiliation
European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, who is in charge of the euro in the EU executive, doused Greek hopes of an immediate agreement on Sunday to start loan negotiations.

"It's utterly unlikely the European Commission will get a mandate to start formal negotiations as regards a third program or ESM program today," he said, referring to the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund.

Greece's new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, was silent in public but the reaction among some lawmakers in Tsipras' radical leftist Syriza party, still smarting from having to swallow austerity measures they had opposed, was furious.

"What is at play here is an attempt to humiliate Greece and Greeks, or to overthrow the Tsipras government," Dimitrios Papadimoulis, a Syriza member of the European Parliament, told Mega TV.

With banks shuttered for two weeks, cash withdrawals rationed and the economy on the edge of an abyss, some Greeks in the streets of Athens vented their anger on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

"The only thing that I care about is not being humiliated by Schaeuble and the rest of theme" said Panagiotis Trikokglou, a 44-year-old private sector worker.

Greece has already had two bailouts worth 240 billion euros from euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund, but its economy has shrunk by a quarter since the crisis began, unemployment has soared above 25 percent and one in two young people is out of work.

Athens defaulted on an IMF loan repayment last month and faces state bankruptcy if it cannot make the bond redemption on July 20, which would likely force the ECB to cut emergency funding for Greek banks.

German sources said Schaeuble, Merkel and Social Democratic Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel had agreed on a division of labor to force Greece to accept tougher conditions or leave the currency area temporarily.

However economists said the idea of a temporary exit was likely to mean ejecting Athens from the European monetary union in the end.

Paul De Grauwe, a Belgian economist at the London School of Economics, compared it to a couple having a trial separation.

"Temporary Grexit is like temporary divorce. Most if not all end up being permanent," he said in a Twitter message.

Holger Schmieding, chief economist of Berenberg Bank, was even more categorical, saying: "Temporary Grexit is Grexit."

Analyst Nicolaus Heinen of Deutsche Bank told Reuters that billions of euros withdrawn by Greeks before capital controls were imposed would crowd out any new currency in a cash economy similar to Cuba or Lebanon, where the dollar is king.

There would be political conflict over a date for Athens' return to the euro zone, and "tension between Greece and the rest of Europe would be bound to grow if Greece was sent to stand outside the classroom like a naughty schoolboy," Heinen said.

Merkel is under mounting pressure from her own conservatives not to give any more money to Greece, but she has so far said she wants to hold the euro zone together, and that will require a third program for Athens.

She requires the assent of the German parliament to agree to the opening of loan negotiations, so diplomats expect her to commit to calling a special session of the Bundstag to give her that mandate if Greece enacts prior reforms this week

The United States has added its voice to calls for a deal this weekend, concerned at the geopolitical consequences if Greece were to be cut loose and become a failed state in the fragile southern Balkans, adjoining the Middle East.

"No one wants to see a North Korea in southeastern Europe," a European Commission official said. — Reuters