Brexit: UK divorce Bill offer worth up to € 50 billion
29 Nov 2017 6:11 PM GMT
LONDON: There has been no final agreement on a number but the offer was given a "broad welcome" by Brussels, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said. No 10 has played down reports the final sum could be up to 55bn euros (£49bn). Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the UK would make a "fair offer" to help break the current deadlock. "Now is the moment to get the whole ship off the rocks and move it forwards," he said during a trip to Ivory Coast, where he is attending a meeting of European and African leaders.
Johnson said he would "not get into the figures" but said all sides wanted to see progress to the next phase of negotiations and discussions on a transition and future relationship. The amount of money the UK will pay as part of Brexit has been one of the main sticking points in the first round of talks. In September Theresa May suggested the UK was willing to pay about 20bn euros, and the EU has been calling for its offer to be increased.
The UK is hoping to move on to talking about trade but the EU will only do this when it deems "sufficient progress" has been made on three areas - the so-called divorce bill, the rights of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit and the Irish border.
The EU says the UK needs to settle its accounts before it leaves. It says the UK has made financial commitments that have to be settled as part of an overall withdrawal agreement.
The UK accepts that it has some obligations. And it has promised not to leave any other country out of pocket in the current EU budget period from 2014-20. There are also longer term issues like pensions for EU staff, and how the UK's contribution to these is calculated for years to come, and the question of what happens to building projects that had funding agreed by all EU members including the UK.
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