EU toughens stance ahead of key summit
Bloc makes new demands
BRUSSELS, April 25, (Agencies): The EU has hardened its position on Brexit talks ahead of a key summit, making new demands on financial services, immigration and Britain’s exit bill, a document showed Tuesday.
The leaders of the other 27 countries will stress that Britain will be liable for costs for at least a year after it leaves in 2019, according to the draft negotiating guidelines seen by AFP.
They insist that Britain’s huge finance industry must also stick to EU rules if it wants easy access to European Union markets.
And Britain should give EU citizens permanent residency after living there for five years, they say, in a challenge for the British government which has vowed to limit immigration.
European diplomats agreed the changes on Monday at a meeting with the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, ahead of Saturday’s Brussels summit where EU leaders will approve “red lines” for two years of tough negotiations. The leaders are also expected to have a “wider debate on Brexit and the upcoming talks” at the summit, a European source told AFP.
The EU’s language has notably toughened from EU President Donald Tusk’s first draft, issued two days after British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the divorce process on March 29.
The new harder stance comes as May prepares to hold talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Barnier in London on Wednesday.
Mention
The section on Britain’s divorce bill — estimated by EU sources at 60 billion euros — now adds a mention of “issues resulting from” the bloc’s seven-year budget from 2014 to the end of 2020.
Previously it only mentioned costs up to Britain’s withdrawal in 2019, but the new version spells out the EU belief that Britain is liable for all costs it signed up to while a member. Britain’s prized financial services industry is also targeted, with changes to the draft making it clear that arrangements for it will not necessarily be tied to any future trade deal with the EU.
Instead the City of London must “respect (the EU’s) regulatory and supervisory regime and standards and their application” if it wants to do business in Europe.
The EU has meanwhile made a top priority of protecting the rights of three million European citizens living in Britain and one million Britons living in Europe, who currently can work and live anywhere they choose in the EU.
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DUBLIN: Ireland’s High Court will consider next month whether it can hear a case from a British plaintiff seeking to decide if Britain’s divorce from the European Union can be reversed.
Judge Peter Kelly set a hearing for May 31 to decide whether an Irish court can hear a case against Brexit that campaigners hope will ultimately be referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a definitive ruling.
If it accepts the case, an Irish court could refer it to the ECJ in Luxembourg soon afterwards and have the issue handled on a European basis.
British tax specialist Jolyon Maugham, the lawyer behind the challenge, said he expected a decision by June or July. If his case clears this hurdle, he expected it could be referred to Luxembourg without much delay.
The backers say Ireland was chosen as their case had to be brought in the EU but outside the UK.