EU ‘Prepared for All Scenarios’ After Court Ruling on Article 50

(Bloomberg) -- The European Commission said it is “prepared for all scenarios” and will not re-negotiate the Brexit deal after the European Union’s highest court said the U.K. can unilaterally reverse the process.

In a landmark ruling, the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Monday said that Britain is free to revoke the Article 50 notice that triggered the divorce process at any time before the country is due to leave the bloc on March 29.

“We take note of the Court of Justice’s judgment today on the irrevocability of Article 50,” Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for the commission, told reporters in Brussels. “We will not re-negotiate. Our position has therefore not changed,” she said.

“There are a number of conditions attached to today’s judgment with regards the irrevocability that would in any case also need to be met,” Andreeva said. “So it’s really not for me to speculate on this.”

“We are not engaging in other if-what scenarios,” the spokeswoman said. “You know what the commission has pleaded during this very particular court case with regards to the revocability and that it should not be done unilaterally. Now the court has ruled something else. We take note of this,” she said.

“Everything else is now for the United Kingdom to decide,” Andreeva said.

On the EU side, “our working assumption is that the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union on March 29, 2019; and beyond that I will not speculate,” she said.

“We have an agreement on the table which was endorsed by the European Council in its Article 50 format on Nov. 25,” Andreeva said. “This deal is the best and only deal possible.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jones Hayden in Brussels at jhayden1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Jones Hayden

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