<span style="color: #222222;">Brussels officials today pressed on with plans to ratify the Brexit deal as European leaders considered Prime Minister Boris Johnson's reluctant request for a Brexit delay.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Ambassadors and senior officials from the other 27 member-states met after British MPs forced Mr Johnson to send EU Council President Donald Tusk a late request to postpone the withdrawal.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' An EU diplomat said the European Union was keeping all options open and had therefore initiated the ratification process so that it could be handed over to the European Parliament the next day. He said that the EU would probably pursue the strategy until there was clarity on the British side.<br />''<br />''After today's talks, EU negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters that it was a very short and normal meeting of the EU ambassadors to launch the next steps of the EU ratification of the agreement.</span><br />