European Union leaders will give British Prime Minister Theresa May a tough reception in Brussels on Wednesday, warning her to rally support at home for the Brexit deal on offer or be cut loose without one in March, Reuters reports.
May will address the other 27 EU national leaders at a summit before they sit down to dinner without her. Officials said they expected the leaders to tell May they have little more to offer since talks stalled on Sunday and they will step up preparations for Britain to drop out of the bloc with no deal.
Summit chair Donald Tusk warned that the risk of a “no deal” dumping Britain out of the bloc and iuknto legal limbo and border chaos on March 29 was greater than ever. He put the onus on May to bring a “creative” solution to break the impasse over the EU-UK land border on the island of Ireland.
Tusk called it a “Gordian Knot”, making clear he did not see May as a contemporary “Alexander the Great”, capable of slicing through the tangle of opposition she faces in London and Belfast over her Brexit plan in order to clinch a treaty with the EU.