A fascinating development HERE according to Politico. The government has realised that we will be expected to sign off on a withdrawal and transition agreement before the terms of a trade agreement are thrashed out. I don't know how this plays against Mrs May's continued insistence that a trade agreement will be ready to implement in March 2019 but let's leave that on one side. At least civil servants obviously don't see things developing as she does.
Britain could refuse to pay its debts to the European Union after Brexit if Brussels reneges on its commitment to a future free-trade deal, according to three senior U.K. officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The proposal, which is likely to anger Brussels, is being considered in Whitehall as an emergency insurance measure to protect the U.K. from a significant political snag in the U.K.’s Brexit strategy.
Under EU law, Brussels cannot agree a trade deal with the U.K. until it has left the bloc. However, this leaves the U.K. prime minister in the uncomfortable position of signing divorce papers — including committing to the “exit bill” — without a legal guarantee of what the new relationship will look like, something unpalatable to many MPs.
This is a conundrum for Brexiteers. Do not forget that we will be negotiating the details through the transition period anyway and the final deal will almost certainly go well beyond the December 2020 deadline and as time goes on we will pay more and more money. Our leverage, which was never very great anyway, will be getting smaller and smaller until we have none at all.
According to Bloomberg (HERE) this is a possibility but the problem I think is that the long term bills of about 9-10 billion are for pensions and are going to amount to a few hundred million Euros a year, hardly enough to cause the EU to break sweat. And the costs for British business and ultimately the exchequer would be enormous.
According to Bloomberg (HERE) this is a possibility but the problem I think is that the long term bills of about 9-10 billion are for pensions and are going to amount to a few hundred million Euros a year, hardly enough to cause the EU to break sweat. And the costs for British business and ultimately the exchequer would be enormous.
