16:01

Guy Verhofstadt has opened the door to Brexit negotiations extending into the next session of the next European parliament.

The Liberal MEP, who is the European parliament’s pointman on Brexit, said it would be more difficult to prolong article 50 beyond the 2 July, the first day of the new European parliament. However, he did not rule out an extension beyond the summer, as he has done on previous occasions. “Certainly I think this is only possible in the case the UK can indicate for how long and what for,” he said, while adding that with no clear plan “to break the deadlock seems to me very difficult to do”.

Commenting in detail on specific amendments in the House of Commons, Verhofstadt said MEPs needed to monitor closely developments at Westminster. But he ruled out any changes to the withdrawal agreement, including the backstop, saying:

There are limits on what we can accept. For us the backstop is non-negotiable.

The EU could consider changes to the non-binding political declaration that maps out the future, he said.

We are open for a deeper and more closer relationship than the relationship that is in the political declaration.

Verhofstadt was speaking to MEPs on the European parliament’s constitutional affairs committee, who are responsible for scrutinising the withdrawal agreement. The committee chair Danuta Hübner said that work would begin next week, despite uncertainty over whether Westminster will ratify the deal.

If the UK remained a member state at the time of European elections in May, the UK had “the duty to organise European elections in line with the treaty and the electoral act,” said Hübner. “Any failure on this will mean a breach of the treaties and can be brought to the courts, of course.”

But other MEPs objected to suggestions that the UK could gain an extension, an indication of the pressure facing EU leaders who would ultimately agree any extension of talks.

Veteran French MEP Alain Lamassoure said the EU needed to put its foot down on extension. He said:

Let me tell you this. If we accept this idea of extending the deadline without any serious political grounds for it and extend it beyond June 30, it will be the European Union that will pay the price, because we are never going to get out of that muddle.