London: Britain is “very close” to agreeing the size of its Brexit bill, Ireland’s EU commissioner said on Wednesday, but reports that the divorce settlement could be up to 55 billion euros have angered both Brexiteers and europhiles.
“I would welcome very much the fact that the United Kingdom has brought forward proposals that go very close towards meeting the requirements of the EU 27 member states,” said Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan.
London and Brussels have agreed that Britain will pay between 45 and 55 billion euros ($53 and $63 billion), according to the Daily Telegraph.
The Financial Times reported Britain would cover EU liabilities worth as much as 100 billion euros, but when structured as net payments over many decades that could drop to less than half that amount.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned that “we still have work to do, the negotiation is not over on this subject” but voiced hope that an agreement could be struck next week.
British Treasury minister Liz Truss also told parliament that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.
An EU diplomat said that they were aware of the “rumours” but that “we are waiting to see something in writing from the UK side.”
“We are cautiously optimistic,” the diplomat said. Pro-Brexit supporters reacted with anger to the reports, with leading campaigner Nigel Farage calling the reported figure “utterly unacceptable”.
“For a sum of this magnitude to be agreed in return for nothing more than a promise of a decent settlement on trade represents a complete and total sellout,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile, pro-EU Labour lawmaker Chuka Umunna said the government’s apparent climbdown dispelled pro-Brexit campaign claims.
“This is a whopping great symbol for the impossibility on delivering Brexit on the terms it was sold to the British people,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Investors were more optimistic that the reports heralded a breakthrough, sending the pound 0.4 per cent higher against the dollar, a two-month high.
Foreign Secretary and Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, who once said the EU could “go whistle” if it demanded a large settlement, on Wednesday appeared to accept the deal if it “guarantees sufficient progress”.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” he told the BBC during a trip to the Ivory Coast.
An agreement would be a major breakthrough as Britain prepares for an EU summit in December where it is hoping to get the go-ahead to start the next phase of talks on future trade ties with the EU. — AFP
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