BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th September, 2019) The European Parliament is open to considering granting another extension to the United Kingdom to come up with a plan on exit terms from the European Union if it will be for the sake of preventing a departure without a deal, EU Parliament President David Sassoli said at a briefing on Thursday.
Brexit has already been postponed several times amid the failure of London to negotiate the divorce term internally and is now scheduled to take place on October 31.
"Resolution says that we are open to a possible extension provided that it's something that's done for overriding reasons like avoiding no-deal, having a general election, or extending Article 50," Sassoli said.
The resolution he referred is expected to be presented for a vote at the EU Parliament session next week and, as he stressed, it will be the parliament to have the final say on the matter.
This resolution is supported by five out of seven parties present in the EU Parliament, including the three largest ones - European People's Party (182 mandates), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (154 mandates) and Renew Europe (108 mandates).
According to Sassoli, the resolution says that if the departure happens under a no-deal scenario, it will be "entirely the responsibility of the United Kingdom."
"The United Kingdom hasn't proposed any alternatives and anything that's been legally credible if I can put it that way and workable on our side. I'd like to say that we are willing to go back to the original EU proposal. This is a significant point," Sassoli said.
With the internal UK negotiation on Brexit currently deadlocked, however, it is unclear whether London would be able to offer Brussels any alternatives to the deal, previously negotiated by former Prime Minister Theresa May.
The so-called backstop option in May's plan provided London with a transitional period after Brexit during which many existing EU-UK arrangements would remain in place to avoid sharp disruptions and allow additional time to try to negotiate a free trade deal with Brussels. If no new agreement is reached within this period, the United Kingdom would remain a single customs territory, inside of which Northern Ireland would enjoy closer integration with the European Union.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been adamant in his determination to withdraw the country from the bloc, be it with or without a deal, by October 31. As his determination met a strong resistance among opposition lawmakers, he resorted to shutting down the parliament for five weeks up until October 14.
In response, the parliament passed a legislation forcing Johnson to delay the withdrawal in absence of a deal. Additionally, they took the case to court, which ruled that the suspension of the parliament was not lawful.
Brexit has already resulted in the resignation of two UK prime ministers, David Cameron and Theresa May, over the former's defeat in the Brexit referendum and the latter's failure to complete the pass her withdrawal plan through the parliament.
