Theresa May arrived for the EU summit in Brussels today (pictured) calling for a ‘bold and ambitious’ deal
Theresa May urged the EU to start trade Brexit trade talks within weeks as she arrived for a crucial summit today.
The Prime Minister appealed for an end to bitter wrangling over the divorce bill, saying she wanted work to begin on her ‘bold and ambitious’ vision for future relations.
The UK government has effectively given up hope of getting authorisation for trade talks at this gathering of EU leader – with haggling over money threatening to deadlock discussions.
Speaking to reporters as she arrived in Brussels this afternoon, Mrs May said: ‘I set out a few weeks ago in Florence a very bold and ambitious agenda and vision for our future partnership between the EU and UK.
‘At the heart of that remains cooperation on the key issues and dealing with the shared challenges that we face. That speech … set out that ambitious vision and I look forward to us being able to progress that in the weeks ahead.’
Britain is said to be fighting calls to pay 11billion euros towards pensions for EU officials, saying the true figure should be more like 3.5billion.
The dispute could be brought up at a dinner for the bloc’s leaders tonight, where Mrs May is expected to make an intervention on Brexit.
The EU is desperate to avoid reopening carefully set budget plans, with countries like Germany refusing to pay more and net recipients saying they will not accept less.
But Downing Street is adamant the PM will not make any further concessions on the divorce bill at this stage, after she offered to contribute 20billion euros during a two-year transition and said the UK would honour ‘commitments’ potentially totalling tens of billions more.
The pensions row is not over the principle of the UK helping meet the costs, but about how the liabilities are calculated.
There are some 1,730 Britons among around the 22,000 retired EU officials, and more pensions will start being paid over the coming years.
Mrs May greeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron as the leaders gathered in Brussels today (pictured)
The Prime Minister was quizzed by reporters on her approach to the summit when she reached the venue today
Prime Minister Theresa May, pictured leaving Downing Street today, is heading for an EU summit in Brussels later
The most recent EU accounts showed the total liabilities for pensions rose 5 percent last year to 67.2 billion euros.
Brussels wants to use what is regarded as an artificially low ‘discount rate’ – an estimated rate of return on capital – that would put the UK share at 11billion euros.
But British negotiators are said to believe the bill should be around 3.5billion euros.
‘Paying pensions for well-heeled Eurocrats is one thing but doing it at a rip-off rate is toxic and could be too nasty a medicine for the British public to swallow,’ a source close to the talks told The Times. ‘Is it really worth jeopardising everything for this?’
Mrs May is being urged by some Tory Brexiteers to take a tough line with Brussels.
Former Cabinet minister Lord Lawson, Peter Lilley, John Redwood and Owen Paterson have gone further and suggested she should simply walk away from the table.
A draft paper by the German foreign ministry suggests Berlin (Chancellor Angela Merkel pictured) is privately anxious to secure a ‘comprehensive’ trade deal with one of its largest trading partners
The PM last night tweeted a picture of her preparing with officials for the EU summit
The president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, has accused Theresa May of being ‘unrealistic’ and said the divorce bill should be around 60billion euros
Mrs May dined in Brussels with EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday as she tried to find a way of unblocking the Brexit negotiations
Mr Paterson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a trade deal with the EU was ‘the best destination’ but said there was no need to be ‘terrified’ of reverting to World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms.
Germany is playing hardball in public, insisting it is not interested in a trade deal unless the UK offers written guarantees it will make a ‘divorce payment’.
Michael Fuchs, vice-chair of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said today that he believed the figure should be between 60billion and 100billion euros.
‘I cannot give you the real figure, the final figure, but there is a figure between 100billion and maybe 60billion, something in between these two numbers should be the right point,’ he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
‘This is what the negotiators have to do at the moment, and I hope that David Davis is coming up with a decent proposal, because 20 billion is definitely not enough.’
But a draft paper by the German foreign ministry suggests Berlin is privately anxious to secure a ‘comprehensive’ trade deal with one of its largest trading partners.
The president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, ramped up the rhetoric this week by accusing Mrs May of being ‘unrealistic’ and said Britain should be forced to pump around 60billion euros into the bloc’s coffers.
Money has emerged as the key issue in the first phase, with the EU refusing to discuss trade until the outline of the financial settlement is agreed.
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier has sought to up the pressure by repeatedly pointing out that the ‘clock is ticking’ before the formal Brexit date in March 2019.
But Brexit Secretary David Davis has said the two sides have little left to discuss in the first phase, with a deal within ‘touching distance’ on citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland border intractable until the shape of a future trade relationship is clearer.
The expected failure to agree ‘sufficient progress’ has been made to start trade talks means the issue will not be revisited until the next EU summit in December.
However, ministers are still confident of achieving movement by Christmas.
Michael Fuchs, vice-chair of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said today that he believed the figure should be between 60billion and 100billion euros
Top Eurocrat says Brexit talks are ‘damage limitation’ for UK
Brexit negotiations are nothing more than ‘damage limitation’ and the only question is how much Britain will pay, a top Eurocrat said today.
Pascal Lamy, a former minister in France and EU commissioner, insisted the UK had to recognise the ‘truth’ that it had no leverage.
The dismissive comments risk inflaming tensions at a crucial stage in talks over Brexit, with the two sides in deadlock over money.
Mr Lamy, who also served as head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), painted a bleak picture of Britain’s prospects.
Pascal Lamy, a former minister in France and EU commissioner, insisted the UK had to recognise the ‘truth’ that it had no leverage
‘The fundamental difference between the UK vision of what this is about and the Franco-German view is that the British still think this is a negotiation.’ he told the Financial Times.
‘It is not a negotiation. It is a process to be managed to minimise harm. It involves adjusting.’
He added: ‘They still seem to believe they can buy something with the money they have to pay
‘The truth is there is nothing to discuss… The only question is how much do you owe.’
Meanwhile, Mrs May’s former director of communications Katie Perrior has admitted that the government weakened its position by invoking Article 50 too early.
She suggested that meant Britain had to accept the EU’s schedule for the talks, with the divorce bill coming before trade.
‘We probably should have taken much more time at the beginning to trigger Article 50,’ Ms Perrior told ITV.