ZAGREB, March 13, 2019 – Croatia is open to the idea of extending the deadline for Great Britain’s leaving the European Union, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday, expressing dissatisfaction over the situation involving Brexit, saying it was an example of a referendum in the public sphere and for campaigning. “We are open to extending the deadline,” Plenković said when asked if Croatia would be willing to accept an extension to the March 29 deadline for Britain’s departure from the EU.
According to Plenković, delaying Bexit could have two scenarios. The first one is a shorter deadline which would give a final chance for an orderly Brexit before the European election or by July 1 at the latest, while the second, longer deadline would raise a number of issues such as the make-up of the European Parliament. In case of a need for the deadline extension, Plenković said he would prefer if the deadline was shorter.
“What is happening in the United Kingdom now is a very good example and it is very important for the Croatian public to understand the consequences of the misuse of a referendum in the public sphere of for campaigning,” Plenković said.
Plenković said that ahead of the 2016 referendum, voters heard a lot of information which scared them and were fairy tales and lies, adding that because of that a majority of voters supported Britain’s departure from the EU.
Plenković also recalled that the incumbent Prime Minister Theresa May as well as the then Prime Minister David Cameron were for Britain’s staying in the EU, but Cameron made “a wrong political assessment by giving room to a man like Nigel Farage … who had an agenda of destruction which unfortunately was successful.”
Plenković said that the will of the majority must be respected, but that it is bad for the British people. “Today they are realising that for the past two and a half years they were a country that dealt with only one topic and one topic alone. Great Britain is one of the the top five global economies, a permanent member of the Security Council, a nuclear force, a global free trade champion. They are self-centred.”
The Croatian PM said the European Union did its best to have an orderly Brexit.
Three years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, lawmakers have failed to agree on how to do so. Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s revised Brexit deal on Tuesday in a vote of 391 to 242, the second time she has suffered such an overwhelming defeat.
Parliament will vote on Wednesday on whether to leave the European Union on schedule, on March 29, without a deal — a scenario that could create economic havoc for Britain and, to a lesser degree, Europe.
Plenković believes that lawmakers were very likely to reject Brexit without a deal and then the only thing left to do was to opt for a delay.
More news on Croatia and Brexit can be found in the Politics section.
