'EU and Britain agree settlement post Brexit'
1 Dec 2017 5:23 PM GMT
Brussels: The European Union has agreed a financial settlement with Britain, a senior EU official told Reuters on Thursday, under which London has committed to paying a set share of EU budgets after Britain has left the bloc.
Following reports of British offers in recent days, EU negotiators have insisted publicly that work is continuing on the financial deal, as both sides also push to reach accords on two other key divorce conditions before a crunch meeting on Monday.
"The official offer has not been submitted, but unofficially it has been agreed to such an extent that if no one decides to stage a last minute complete turnaround everything will be OK," the official said.
A spokesperson for Britain's Department for Exiting the European Union was not immediately available for comment.
Overall, the EU side was "optimistic" that agreement could be reached on the conditions to allow EU leaders to agree during a Dec. 14-15 summit to open talks on post-Brexit relations.
The British government dismissed as "speculation" on Wednesday reports in British newspapers that it had more than doubled its offer to the EU to very roughly 50 billion euros.
The EU official said there was no precise figure discussed because the amounts to be paid in future will depend on many imponderable variables, ranging from whether loan guarantees had to be exercised to the vagaries of the sterling-euro exchange rate and relative growth in the British and EU economies.
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