The European Commission performed a startling U-turn on its landmark trade agreement with Canada on Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from France and Germany by deciding that national parliaments would have to ratify the deal.

The need for approval from almost 40 national and regional assemblies not only threatens to scupper the Canadian deal itself, but delivers an ominous signal to British politicians who insist that the U.K. could negotiate a quick post-Brexit trade accord with the EU.

Speaking in Strasbourg, Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said the EU had decided to call the Canada deal a “mixed agreement.” This means that the bloc’s most significant trade deal to date is now hostage to hostile lawmakers in parliaments ranging from Romania to the Belgian region of Wallonia.

After the shock of Britain’s referendum to quit the EU, politicians in Paris and Berlin have sought to reassert the sovereignty of their parliaments and have protested about the EU’s plans to ratify such a high-profile trade accord without consulting national assemblies.

“I have looked at the legal arguments and I have listened to heads of state or government and to national parliaments,” said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “Now it is time to deliver. The credibility of Europe’s trade policy is at stake.”

The decision, taken during a meeting of the EU’s commissioners in Strasbourg, represented a surprising volte-face because the Commission had hoped to treat the accord as an EU-only deal, meaning it would require approval only from the European Parliament and national governments in the Council.

The Canadian deal has stoked sensitivities across Europe primarily because it is seen as a precursor to the far more contentious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the U.S.

Matthias Fekl, France’s trade minister, said it was “unbelievable” that Brussels had been planning to treat the deal as an exclusively EU competence.

“I find it even more hallucinatory only a few days after the result of the British referendum that one could envisage this type of procedure at the level of the European Commission,” he told the news agency AFP in an interview.

The tortuous path to approve the deal will sound alarms in London, where politicians are pinning their hopes on a quick settlement with the EU after Brexit. Debates in national parliaments could potentially add years of delay to the Canadian accord, which has already taken seven years to finalize.

‘Can’t wait’

In an even more sobering signal for the British, Romanian politicians have threatened to oppose the deal because Bucharest is not receiving visa reciprocity from Ottawa. Many British parliamentarians insist that they will be able to disentangle the question of immigration and access for EU workers from any trade arrangement with Brussels.

“This decision clearly gives more leverage to national governments and parliaments,” said Romanian Social Democrat MEP Sorin Moisa. “They could also use it to put pressure on potential trading partners, like the U.K. if it left the EU, to settle delicate issues, for example on migration.”

The Commission said it wants to apply the deal on a provisional basis, meaning that large parts of the agreement that do not touch upon national competences can already enter into force after the Council and the European Parliament vote on it.

Malmström said she hoped “the deal with Canada can be signed, provisionally applied and concluded quickly.”

Negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement started in 2009 and were concluded in February this year after Canada accepted last-minute changes to the investor-state arbitration clause, which was improved to respond to public criticism about a potential lack of democratic accountability.

The trade deal will increase bilateral exports of goods and services by 23 percent, or €26 billion annually, according to a joint statement by Malmström and Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in April.

MEP Alessia Mosca, an Italian Social Democrat lawmaker in the trade committee, called for a quick ratification, despite the Commission’s decision.

“If we look at the EU-South Korea trade deal, it took the national parliaments five years to ratify that deal,” Mosca said. “We can’t wait that long with Canada, this is a highly beneficial trade deal.”

French MEP Yannick Jadot from the Greens group said his party “will continue to push … for the overall agreement to be rejected.”

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