The European Union at 27 decided to “accept the UK’s request for a Brexit extension by 31 January 2020,” European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed on Monday.
The EU27 has agreed that it will accept the UK’s request for a #Brexit flextension until 31 January 2020. The decision is expected to be formalised through a written procedure.
The President of the European Council adds that the decision should now be “formalized through a written procedure” .
According to Donald Tusk, this deadline may be shortened if Parliament ratifies, however, the exit agreement signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brussels.The European Union has already made it clear that it will not renegotiate the exit agreement.
A Downing Street source told Reuters that the government would consider suggestions from opposition parties after the British Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party said they supported early elections on December 9.
The decision to postpone it was taken this morning during a half-hour meeting between the 27 EU ambassadors who last Friday had failed to agree on the length of the further extension of the UK’s exit from the EU bloc.
Over the weekend, the ambassadors maintained intense diplomatic contacts in order to overcome existing impasses. There was also a telephone contact between Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron, during which the Prime Minister persuaded Paris to accept his postponement .
Boris Johnson has always said he would not ask for a further postponement of the UK’s exit from the European Union, but was forced to do so when the British Parliament demanded more time to discuss the prime minister’s agreement .
European Parliament President David Sassoli considered it “positive” that all 27 agreed to a flexible postponement of Brexit.
“This gives the UK time to make it clear what it wants. In the meantime, the European Parliament will continue to scrutinize the exit agreement, ” he explained.
The departure of the United Kingdom from the EU had already been postponed twice, still during the term of the now former Prime Minister Theresa May, who could not see her agreement ratified by Parliament.
