EU Negotiator: UK must still accept it has Brexit costs

London - The European Union is still unsure whether the UK government has accepted it must foot a bill when it leaves the bloc, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator said.

“At this moment, we don’t even know if the UK recognizes that there is a financial settlement to make,” Guy Verhofstadt told the Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee in Brussels on Wednesday. “This uncertainty has, in my opinion, to disappear the fastest as possible.”

The so-called Brexit bill is one of the biggest hurdles in the early negotiations between Britain and the bloc. EU officials have indicated it could run as high as €100bn in gross terms as they push the UK to cover past budget commitments. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has ruled out paying such a sum, suggesting it could seek a chunk of the EU’s assets as part of a “fair settlement.”

Brexit negotiations are scheduled to resume in Brussels on Monday. It’ll be the second time that officials on both sides meet face to face following a first round of talks last month. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also briefed journalists on Wednesday and will meet members of the European Parliament on Thursday.

‘Second class’

Verhofstadt also said there were problems with the British government’s plan for protecting the rights of EU nationals already in the UK, describing the offer Britain published last month as leaving them with “second-class citizenship,” which is “absolutely not what we want.”

There’s also confusion over the date by which EU citizens would have to move to the UK to qualify for the protection of rights, the criteria they’d have to fulfill for obtaining what the government calls “settled status,” and over how professional qualifications will be recognized, he said.

Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, doesn’t take part in the negotiations with Britain but does sit in on coordination meetings. On Monday, British newspapers published an open letter in which he said that the Parliament may use its veto to block the entire Brexit agreement if the UK doesn’t improve its offer on citizens.

‘Frictionless’ trade

Earlier this month, Barnier warned the British government against thinking that any settlement could result in a “frictionless” trade relationship, saying however positive the deal is for Britain it’ll still have “significant consequences.”

It was a rebuff to those in the UK who have seized upon May’s disastrous election performance as reason to think they can keep some benefits of membership.

The prime minister attempted on Tuesday a “reset” for her government after last month’s ballot losses, but the bid was undermined by confusion over Brexit policy.

As May gave her speech, her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, told lawmakers that the government isn’t planning for the contingency of failing to broker a Brexit deal with the EU. May has repeatedly said that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

“There’s no plan for no deal because we’re going to get a great deal,” Johnson said. May’s spokesman, James Slack, appeared to contradict the foreign secretary a few minutes later when he told reporters that “contingency planning is taking place for a range of scenarios.”

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