The European Union has agreed to a three-month flexible extension for Great Britain to leave the EU after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested an extension which he had vowed not to ask for due to pressure from opponents. The announcement was made in the early hours of Monday after a meeting in Brussels.
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“The EU27 has agreed that it will accept the UK’s request for a Brexit ‘flextension’ until 31 January 2020,” European Council President Donald Tusk said in a tweet, referring to the idea of a “flexible extension”.
The UK was supposed to exit the EU on Oct. 31 at 23:00 but will now leave the EU28 in January with the option to leave before then should internal agreements be reached in the British Council, hence, flexible extension.
The 27 countries that will make up the EU27 after Brexit agreed to put off Brexit until the end of January but will require that the UK accepts their offer before launching “written procedure” whereby governments will have 24 hours to accept or reject.
“We can only launch the written procedure when we have the agreement of the UK government on the text,” a senior EU official said. Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is obliged by legislation to accept an extension once offered as passed by the Parliament last month.
With the delay in Brexit, Boris Johnson is seeking an election in December but needs 2/3 of the support of 650 lawmakers for an election to push through. The House of Commons vote later today.