The European Commission has not yet received any request from the UK Government for a further extension of the Article 50 period beyond 31 October and "nothing concrete" has been presented as a possible alternative to the agreement on an orderly Brexit, commented Mina Andreeva, the institution's spokesperson, on Thursday 5 September.
She was reacting to the vote of British MPs the previous evening who, having rejected the scenario of leaving the European Union without a United Kingdom agreement, are forcing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to request a further three-month extension if a new orderly withdrawal agreement is not negotiated in time by 31 October.
On Wednesday evening, MPs also swept away Boris Johnson's plan to call early elections on 15 October, two days before a European summit expected to take stock of negotiations with the United Kingdom.
However, on Thursday, MPs were again moving towards a vote on early elections, but at a date other than the one strategically intended by Boris Johnson. MPs will vote again on this issue on Monday, September 9. The suspension of the Parliament, as requested by the Prime Minister, should follow.
Meetings continue in parallel with the British government envoy, David Frost, who was in Brussels on 4 September and will return this Friday 6.
These talks - two and a half hours long, according to The Sun - have still not produced concrete proposals on the backstop to prevent the return of a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Commission spokesperson said.
This is what the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, had said to the Member States' ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday afternoon.
Andreeva also refused to comment on the Johnson government's intention to amend the political declaration on post-Brexit bilateral trade relations by allowing London to deviate, as the British understand it, from the European Union's environmental, social and competition standards. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)