EU hits pause button before planning for full-blown Brexit collapse
Bloc leaders agree on a November deadline to sign off any Britain deal
Brussels — The EU will wait until November before starting full-blown preparations for a possible collapse of Brexit talks, diplomats said, reluctantly accepting that such a scenario would still require some managing. On Wednesday EU envoys of the 27 countries remaining in the bloc after Brexit discussed stepping up contingency planning should no agreement with Britain emerge on how to run the unprecedented process. "We will wait for if and when the negotiations with Britain officially fail to kickstart more open work among the 27 on preparing for a no-deal," a senior EU diplomat said. "We’ve given ourselves until November."
The 27 EU leaders have agreed to meet on the weekend of November 17-18 to sign off on any agreement with Britain, which on March 29 2019 will become the first country to leave the bloc. "There are areas where we need to act to have something in place on March 30th no matter what," the diplomat said. Some EU diplomats and officials reacted with irony to doz...
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