EU Ramps Up No-deal Preparations As It Weighs UK’s Brexit Ultimatum

Johnson’s move, which Britain says is aimed at clarifying ambiguities, plunged Brexit into crisis less than four months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU’s orbit at the end of the so called transition period which ends in December.

The EU has ordered Britain to scrap the plan by the end of September but Britain bluntly refused and said its parliament was sovereign above international law.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday, after talks in London, that the bloc was stepping up plans for a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year as trade talks had made little progress.

“The UK has not engaged in a reciprocal way on fundamental EU principles and interests,” Barnier said. “Nobody should underestimate the practical, economic and social consequences of a ‘no deal’ scenario.”