EU says will consider next Brexit steps after UK’s end-month deadline

The European Union will consider its next steps in tense Brexit negotiations with Britain after the end-September deadline it has set for London to scrap a plan to breach the terms of its Withdrawal Agreement, the bloc’s executive said on Friday.

“We have set a deadline for the UK and therefore … we are going to take this step by step,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told a news briefing.

“We are going to wait for the reaction of the United Kingdom by that deadline and we will consider next steps once we have reached that particular bridge. And in the meantime we will make no further comment.” 

Earlier, UK trade policy minister Greg Hands on Friday said Britain is not threatening to “tear up” the Withdrawal Agreement that it signed with the European Union in January, as the row between the two sides continues.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has refused to revoke a plan that will break the divorce treaty even though Brussels says it could sink four years of talks.

“It’s not threatening to tear up the treaty. We’re not looking to retreat from our protocol commitments, this is a clarification in case there’s no further negotiated outcome,” Hands told Sky News.

He said that a trade deal between the UK and Japan reached on Friday showed that trading partners were still keen to do deals with the UK.