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If the PM's deal goes through at MV3, the WA Bill would still of course have to be passed. Assume the PM request is granted and she has until end June for that purpose. /1
On that basis she will not have to organise EP elections, since @Europarl_EN does not sit till 1 July. /2
But not to have elections would give the ERG an open goal to no deal. They stop the WA Bill in its tracks. Without MEPs, Govt itself accepts Council view that EU could not lawfully function (though the Minister said the opposite to me on 27 Feb). Result: no deal. /3
The best option if feasible would be a longer delay, with a commitment to hold EP elections. Politically inconvenient, but logical: we would retain our place in Council, Court and Commission for as long as we are members, so why not EP? /4
Failing that, we would be pleading in June for an emergency patch to keep us in? Would have to be consistent with Art 20(2) TFEU since plainly no time for Treaty amendment and ratification so late in the day. /5
A perilous exercise, given that EU27 are apparently being advised that without MEPs we could not stay in the EU ft.com/content/030dce…. /6
Can anyone detail what such a patch would look like legally, @StevePeers @PietEeckhout @akulith (who can't answer this but might elaborate on earlier tweets), @nicklanetweet @SarahLudford @pmdfoster (whose thread earlier today got me thinking about this)? /7
Of course it would have to be acceptable not just to lawyers but politically to the EU27: a graphic illustration of just how much they have us over a barrel ... /8
... or should I say in a barrel, bobbing towards the top of the Niagara Falls? /9
HELP! This one really worries me. /ends, quite possibly in chaos
“An inconvenience, not a disaster”, as Ministers confirm to @Peston 
See Martin Selmayr’s take on this
And Art 14(3) TEU: "MEPs shall be elected for a term of five years by direct universal suffrage in a free and secret ballot."
