EU leaders should postpone Brexit progress decision

BRUSSELS: EU leaders should postpone a decision due in October on whether Brexit talks have made sufficient progress to move on to trade negotiations, a draft resolution by the European Parliament said Thursday.
Without a "major breakthrough" the leaders should put off the assessment which they are due to make at a summit next month, said the resolution obtained by AFP, which MEPs are set to vote on in Strasbourg next week.
British and EU negotiators are due to wrap up a fourth round of negotiations in Brussels on Thursday.
The resolution said the European Parliament "is of the opinion that in the fourth round of negotiations sufficient progress has not yet been made on citizens' rights, Ireland and the Northern Ireland, and the settlement of the United Kingdom's financial obligations".
The parliament "calls on the European Council, unless there is major breakthrough in line with this resolution in all three areas during the fifth negotiation round, to decide at its Oct meeting to postpone its assessment on whether sufficient progress has been made".
MEPs will have the final say on any deal for Britain's departure from the EU in 2019.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who represents the EU member states, said after meeting May in London on Tuesday that there was "no sufficient progress" so far. — AFP