The EU will hand Britain a £50bn “exit bill” when Theresa
May triggers Article 50, the bloc's chief negotiator has warned.
Michel Barnier has told colleagues a divorce settlement
amounting to “tens of billions” will be expected from the UK every year until
2020 to pay off its existing spending commitments.
The bill will include outstanding pensions liabilities, loan
guarantees and spending on UK-based projects.
It chimes with the Financial Times analysis that more than
€300bn of payment liabilities will need to be settled before Britain quits the
bloc.
And it echoes the warning from German finance minister
Wolfgang Schäuble, who said the UK could be paying off a bill of €40-60bn for
the next decade.
According to Tomas Prouza, Czech Republic’s Europe minister,
the cash is simply “agreeing the bills that the UK has already agreed to pay”.
He told Sky News: “I understand why the eurosceptics call it
an exit fee...
“We’re talking about payments to the existing budget that
the UK already voted for, pensions of British citizens working at the EU. This
is only things the UK has already committed itself to paying.”
Asked whether British taxpayers should expect a bill amounting
to tens of billions, he said: “Definitely. This is what the UK has already
committed to pay, and we would expect that the UK would honour its
commitments... it will be one of the first issues coming up on the table.”
But furious eurosceptic MP Iain Duncan Smith said: “It’s
playing to the gallery to try and persuade Britain to beg for mercy. We will
not.”
The former minister added: “This is based on their [the
EU's] fevered imagination, not reality. The Remainers will use this to try to
stop Brexit, it’s Project Fear all over again.
“It is utter, total rubbish from Mr Barnier... There are
real questions about what we owe, it’s probably peanuts. He is deploying the
tactics of project fear. People won’t believe it.”
Downing Street has however said any divorce settlement with
the bloc would be a matter for negotiation.
-homepolitics
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