UK’s PM to visit European capitals seeking Brexit breakthrough

LONDON (AFP) — Boris Johnson will visit European capitals this week on his first overseas trip as British leader, as his government said Sunday it had ordered the repeal of the decades-old law enforcing EU membership.

Johnson’s Downing Street office confirmed he will travel to Berlin on Wednesday for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and on to Paris Thursday for discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron, amid growing fears of a no-deal Brexit in two-and-a- half months.

The meetings, ahead of a two-day G7 summit starting Saturday in the southern French resort of Biarritz, will be his first diplomatic forays abroad since replacing Theresa May last month.

He is expected to push for fresh negotiations over the terms of Brexit or warn that the EU faces Britain crashing out of the bloc on Oct. 31 — the latest delayed date for its departure.

European leaders have repeatedly rejected reopening an accord struck with May last year but then rejected by British lawmakers on three occasions, despite Johnson’s threats that the country will leave then without an agreement.

In an apparent show of intent, London announced Sunday that it had ordered the scrapping of the European Communities Act, which took Britain into the forerunner to the EU 46 years ago and gives Brussels law supremacy.

The order, signed by Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay on Friday, is set to take effect on Oct. 31.