HELSINKI (AP) — British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is defending his government's decision to suspend parliament and says the move has nothing to do with preventing lawmakers from debating the country's exit from the European Union.

At a meeting Friday with his EU counterparts in Finland, Raab said that "the idea that this is some kind of constitutional outrage is nonsense. It's actually lawful. It's perfectly proper. There's precedent for it."

Other EU foreign ministers expressed concern that a potentially damaging and very costly U.K. exit from the bloc without an agreement now appears more likely.

Most declined to comment on the government's move, but Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said suspending parliament "is a way of proceeding in democracy that doesn't quite conform to the rules."