UPDATE - EU's Tusk calls for Brexit meeting on April 10

UPDATE WITH A STATEMENT FROM EUROPEAN COMMISSION

By Busra Nur Bilgic

ANKARA (AA) - Fresh off British lawmakers again voting down the withdrawal agreement with the EU, the European Council president has called his colleagues to meet two days before April 12, Britain's new exit date.

“In view of the rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement by the House of Commons, I have decided to call a European Council on 10 April,” Donald Tusk wrote on Twitter on Friday.

Following the Brexit deal's latest defeat, a no-deal exit on April 12 is now possible, the European Commission said later on Friday in a statement.

“The EU has been preparing for this since December 2017 and is now fully prepared for a ‘no-deal’ scenario at midnight on 12 April,” said the statement.

The commission added that the advantages of the withdrawal agreement will not be replicated in a no-deal exit, including a transition period.

On Friday, by a 286-344 vote, the British parliament rejected the EU withdrawal agreement for a third time.

On Wednesday, British lawmakers failed to back any of the eight options put forward as alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, deepening the chaos around the country’s departure from the EU.

After agreeing to an extension, the EU had previously agreed to move the Brexit date from March 29 (today) to April 12 (if agreement did not approve the deal) or to May 22 (if it approved the deal).

U.K. voters decided to leave the bloc after a more than 40-year membership in a 2016 referendum.