EU hardens Brexit stance ahead of summit

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 yesterday.

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.

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 journalists.

Tougher language

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 JeanClaude Juncker and Barnier in London on Wednesday.

The section on Britain’s divorce bill — estimated by EU sources at €60 billion (Dh240 billion) — now adds a mention of “issues resulting from” the bloc’s sevenyear budget from 2014 to the end of 2020.