“They must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber”
Remain voters who want to stay in the EU must not be “betrayed”, the president of the European Council has warned
Speaking to the European Council, Donald Tusk urged them to support Remainers trying to cancel Brexit or revoke Article 50.
This comes after the EU reached an agreement on an extension for the final Brexit day, which means the UK may have the chance to get a longer extension and participate in EU elections.
Tusk said that the EU must not “betray” the six million people who signed the petition to revoke Article 50 and the one million people who marched for a People’s Vote.
“They may feel that they are not sufficiently represented by the UK parliament, but they must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber. Because they are Europeans,” he said.
Appeal to EP: You should be open to a long extension, if the UK wishes to rethink its strategy. 6 million people signed the petition, 1 million marched. They may not feel sufficiently represented by UK Parliament but they must feel represented by you. Because they are Europeans.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 27, 2019
“Before the European Council, I said that we should be open to a long extension if the UK wishes to rethink its Brexit strategy, which would, of course, mean the UK’s participation in the European Parliament elections.”
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in parliament also supported this claim and has said the UK “can stay” in the EU if it wants to.
.@MichelBarnier in @Europarl_EN: “@Nigel_Farage, no one in Brussels is trying to steal #Brexit from you…but it is not Brussels that decided that the UK would leave the EU. You made that choice, you must take responsibility & face up to the consequences. Nobody else.” https://t.co/Hvc7KpSQqN
— Daniel Ferrie (@DanielFerrie) March 27, 2019
“No one in Brussels is trying to steal Brexit from you, no one is trying to undo the vote to put to the British people,” he said.
“But it is not Brussels that decided that the UK would leave the European Union: you were the ones that made that choice and you are the ones who have to take that responsibility and face up to your decisions. No one else.”
The UK was supposed to depart from the EU on 29 March but the EU agreed on an unconditional Brexit delay until 12 April.
In addition to this agreement, if the UK parliament could agree on a deal this week, which is unlikely to happen, then there will be an extra extension until 22 May.
