Portugal to have flexibility to avoid disorderly Brexit: FM

Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-20 06:08:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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LISBON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Portugal wants to avoid a disorderly Brexit and will have the necessary flexibility to respond to the request that the British prime minister will make to European leaders, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said here on Tuesday.

"The Portuguese position is known. We understand that the worst case scenario is the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU) without an agreement," said Santos Silva.

"So we will do everything we can to avoid a disorderly way out, using the necessary flexibility to accommodate and respond to the proposal or request that the British prime minister (Theresa May) will do to European leaders," he added.

"From an internal but also a European point of view, we continue to prepare ourselves for all scenarios, including the scenario of a non-agreement exit, in order to avoid a situation of chaos that would greatly harm both citizenship and the European economy," he told reporters in Lisbon at the end of a Social Dialogue meeting.

According to Santos Silva, at the European Council meeting on Thursday, the heads of state and government will focus on this issue and it is hoped that by then "the United Kingdom will be able to present a proposal, because now things are on the British side. "

"Portugal would be fully available to accept the postponement, be it technical postponement until June 30, or a longer postponement. But we need to see the proposal that the UK will make," he said.

He also said that if the postponement of Brexit is until June 30, Britain will not need to hold a European election, but in the case of a longer delay, the British will have to hold the vote for the European Parliament.

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