BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union members agreed on Thursday to postpone Britain's withdrawal from the Brexit bloc for three months, in a decision taken 90 hours before the scheduled break-up in which Britain could have rushed out without agreement.
He set the new date for the implementation of «Brexit» on January 31, although the 27 countries are ready to allow London to secede before that date, in the event of ratification of an agreement allowing an orderly exit before that date.
"The 27 EU countries have agreed that they will approve Britain's request to extend the Brexit until January 31, 2020," Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter.
He added that «the decision is expected to become formal through written approval, after a meeting of ambassadors of member states in Brussels to approve the postponement».
According to a copy of the agreement seen by AFP, Brexit could be implemented on Nov. 30 or Dec. 31 if Prime Minister Boris Johnson persuades the British parliament to approve secession in a friendly manner.
In the meantime, London should appoint a commissioner to the new European Commission and agree that the withdrawal agreement signed by Johnson on October 17 will not be renegotiated, as agreed by the bloc.
A European source said the next step should be London's official approval of the delay, after which Tusk would ask European capitals to sign it. "We hope it will be done today or tomorrow," he said.
"It was a short, effective and constructive meeting," European negotiator Michel Barnier said as he left the ambassadors' meeting.
The postponement could have been agreed last week, but Paris was conservative and worried it would do nothing to boost Britain's chances of deciding how to deal with the end of a five-decade relationship with the EU.
Boris Johnson was pushing to leave at the end of this month, but had to give up, and he still has to convince British lawmakers to ratify the agreement he signed with Brussels, by waving the specter of an exit without an agreement and its economic consequences for the UK. Meanwhile, the opposition is reluctant to give its votes to secure the two-thirds majority needed for early elections unless its threat to Brexit is withdrawn without agreement. Exit Britain from the EU beyond the end of the month it.
While Paris wanted to wait for the election timetable, European diplomats told AFP yesterday that they would not wait any longer and would issue a resolution without further delay after Britain agreed it would not try to change the withdrawal deal.
A French diplomatic source said: "The terms of the extension have been defined and strengthened, especially since the agreement is not negotiable."
Johnson is scheduled to ask the House of Commons to vote on early elections he wants to hold on Dec. 12, and the deputies will then have time to ratify the Brexit agreement. He does not even have a simple majority, while he needs a two-thirds majority of the 650 deputies, to hold early elections and thus to support some of the opposition. The Labor Party opposes Johnson's agreement on Brexit and says it will not support the election option until it completely gives up its threat to leave the EU without an agreement.
More than three years after the British voted 52-48% in favor of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, the country and parliament remain deeply divided.
• «Brexit» may be implemented ahead of the new date, if Johnson persuaded parliament to approve the secession in a friendly manner.
• A European source clarifies that the next step is London's official approval of the postponement, and then the signing of the European capitals.