Boris Johnson will not stick to his deadline of leaving the European Union by the end of 2020, European commissioner Phil Hogan told Monday’s edition of the Irish Times.
“In the past, we saw the way the prime minister promised to die in the ditch rather than extend the deadline for Brexit, only for him to do just that,” the recently appointed commissioner for trade said.
Britain is due to leave the EU at the end of January, with a transition period that runs at the end of 2020.
Johnson has pledged to stick to that deadline if Britain has concluded a final agreement with the bloc or not.
Hogan said Johnson’s plan to add the date to legislation was “very odd” and a political “stunt”.
Hogan warned that a no-deal Brexit “would pour salt into wounds and risk dividing families, communities and regions,” the Irish Times citing Hogan as saying.
“Too much of the debate in the UK over the past four years was based on the false notion that it is possible to make a clean-break Brexit while retaining all the benefits of EU membership.
“Now that the political deadlock at Westminster is broken the next phase of Brexit needs to be based on realism and hard facts.
“Any ‘having our cake and eat it’ rhetoric will not fly.
“Both sides need to proceed calmly and coherently,” Hogan was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
With responsibility for trade, Irishman Hogan will play an important role in the EU’s future negotiations with Britain. (dpa/NAN)
