EU ministers insist Britain must justify Brexit delay

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EU ministers warned Tuesday that Britain must come to this week's emergency summit with a credible plan to justify postponing Brexit, as last-ditch talks got underway across European capitals.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was to meet her German counterpart Angela Merkel in Berlin and France's President Emmanuel Macron in Paris later in the day, before Wednesday's EU summit in Brussels.

She will ask for Britain's exit from the union to be postponed beyond midnight on Friday, to avoid a chaotic and disorderly divorce, and the other 27 EU leaders are expected to agree -- under conditions.

"We are in a very, very frustrating situation here," said Germany's minister for European affairs Michael Roth, as he and fellow EU officials arrived for Luxembourg talks on the eve of the summit.

Roth said that EU leaders would consider May's planned request for Brexit to be pushed back to June 30, but also perhaps for a "longer one, but this must also be subject to very strict criteria."
"But of course there needs to be a real plan to go with a request for an extension -- that's credible -- in order for that extension to be agreed over the next three days, and I think that's likely to happen."