London (AFP)

The British government, whose leader Boris Johnson will travel this week to meet with European leaders, announced Sunday that he has ordered for October 31 the repeal of the British law that allowed the United Kingdom to join the European Union. .

This day is not chosen at random: it is the expected date of the Brexit, which has already been postponed twice, and the one to which Boris Johnson has promised that his country would have left the EU, whether he has succeeded or not to renegotiate the Brexit agreement concluded between his predecessor and the European leaders.

"This is a clear signal to the citizens of this country: we will leave the EU as promised on 31 October whatever the circumstances," said Steve Barclay, Minister responsible for Brexit, in a statement. "This is a historic moment of regaining control over our laws in relation to Brussels".

But the decision is mostly symbolic, according to Maddy Thimont-Jack, think-tank "Institute for government".

"We already knew that we would repeal the text (called European Communities Act 1972, ed) but we did not know the date is a political symbol," said the specialist at AFP. Former Prime Minister "Theresa May has never done this because it can be done at the last minute," she said.

Boris Johnson wants to put pressure on the EU to obtain a new agreement by waving the threat, more and more imminent, of a Brexit without agreement while Brussels refuses so far to reopen the negotiations.

He will meet Wednesday Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and Thursday the French President Emmanuel Macron. Then he will be from August 24 to 26 in Biarritz for the G7 summit where he will meet with US President Donald Trump, with whom he hopes to conclude an ambitious free trade agreement after Brexit.

- "National emergency" -

The announcement follows the publication Sunday of a letter in which more than 100 British parliamentarians call Boris Johnson to immediately summon Parliament, currently on vacation, to sit permanently until 31 October.

"Our country is on the brink of an economic crisis as we move towards a Brexit without agreement," write those parliamentarians who want to prevent such a scenario. "We are in front of a national emergency, and Parliament must be summoned immediately".

According to Maddy Thimont-Jack, if Parliament managed to "force the government to postpone Brexit, the government could very easily change the date of repeal" of the "European Communities Act 1972" and fix it after October 31.

Members are expected to sit again on September 3rd. Labor opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn plans to pass a no-confidence motion against Boris Johnson, whose government has only a one-vote majority in Parliament.

If the motion succeeds, Mr Corbyn hopes to become acting head of the government, to obtain a further postponement of the date of the departure of the EU to avoid a Brexit without agreement, and then call early elections.

- "Probable" shortages -

"What we need is a government that is ready to negotiate with the European Union so that we do not have a catastrophic exit on 31st October," Corbyn said Saturday.

In the case of Brexit without an agreement, The Sunday Times revealed on Sunday that the UK is likely to face a shortage of food, gas and medicine, blockages in ports or a return from a border between Ireland and Ireland.

The paper is based on a leaked government report. "The documents present the most likely consequences of a Brexit without agreement and not the worst scenarios," he said.

This was refuted by Michael Gove, the right arm of the government, ensuring on Twitter that these documents described "the worst case scenario" and that "very significant measures have been taken in the last three weeks to accelerate preparations for Brexit".

© 2019 AFP