Germany's Roth: UK must propose something new to justify Brexit delay

BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain could delay its withdrawal from the European Union once, for a short time but must put something substantially new on the table to make the case for a postponement, Germany's European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said on Wednesday. "You can delay once, a single time, we are talking about a few weeks or few months, otherwise Britain would have to participate in the European elections," Roth told German ZDF television. "For us it is important that something substantially new would be put on the table to justify a delay. Then we would all have to vote on it ... No one wants to punish the Britons, if we can achieve something with a delay, we would be the last ones to stand in the way," he added. (Writing by Madeline Chambers; editing by Thomas Seythal)