EPP Head-If No Brexit Deal By Sunday Parlt Shouldn't Ratify

Head of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber has tweeted: "I have proposed to @Europarl_EN leadership this morning that we should only approve a #Brexit agreement if we get it until this Sunday. After that we cannot reasonably scrutinize the deal before the end of the year. The agreement is too important to rush through Parliament. We owe it to the people and businesses in our constituencies who will be heavily affected by #Brexit, to scrutinize the deal appropriately. After Sunday we don't believe this would still be possible."

• The EPP is the largest single grouping in the European Parliament, and contains the CDU of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• The request to set a hard deadline on the submission of a Brexit deal for approval by parliament by year-end may be effective, however, there is then the issue of whether any deal is given provisional application.
• This would see it come into force on 1 Jan, but be approved by the European Parliament at a later date. On this issue the Parliament could find its hands tied. Provisional application is in the gift of the member states rather than the Parliament or Commission.