EU parliament head says Britain now faces choice of Brexit delay or no deal

BRUSSELS: European Parliament head David Sassoli said on Wednesday that “not much progress” has been made in Brexit talks and that Britain must now ask for a delay to its Oct. 31 departure date or crash out without a divorce agreement.

“The European Parliament is of course open to possibility of an extension if there are specific objective reasons for it,” Sassoli told a plenary session of the house. “Requesting extension is the prerogative of the UK.

France says will only extend Brexit if British politics shift

France could discuss giving London an extension on its deadline for leaving the European Union if there was a political shift in Britain allowing a different type of dialogue on Brexit, a French government minister said on Wednesday.

“On the extension, France has said the same thing for more than six months”, State Secretary for European Affairs Amelie de Montchalin said at a parliamentary hearing.

“If there are new (British) elections or a new referendum, if there is a political shift leading us to believe we could have a different dialogue from the one we have today, then an extension can be discussed”, she said.

“But adding more and more time in the exact same conditions would not give us much hope that something different would happen”, Montchalin said.