UK tries to defuse Brexit security row

British politicians tie anti-terrorism to trade negotiations

LONDON // Britain sought to downplay a row over the future of its security ties with the EU yesterday, as London and Brussels began a two-year divorce process. France and Germany put up a common front against prime minister Theresa May’s call to negotiate the exit and the new relationship at the same time, setting up an obstacle to agreement before negotiations begin.

But a day after Mrs May formal- ly notified the EU of Britain’s intention to leave, it was her warning that failure to agree a trade deal would jeopardise the fight against terrorism that rankled.

“It’s not a threat,” Brexit minister David Davis said on BBC radio after warnings from Brussels against using security as a bargaining chip in the talks.

He said the “simple truth” was that without a “parallel deal” with the EU, Britain would no longer be a member of the Europol crime-fighting agency or take part in the European arrest warrant system.

Interior minister Amber Rudd said: “If we left Europol, then we would take our information with us”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, said that “citizens’ security was far too serious a subject” to be held hostage to negotiations.

The row started as some of the EU’s senior figures fleshed out their strategy for the talks ahead as the UK seeks to become the first state to withdraw from the 60-year-old union. French president Francois Hollande yesterday followed German chancellor Angela Merkel in snubbing Mrs May’s proposed structure for the negotiations, saying the exit agreement must come first.

“First, we must begin discussions on the modalities of the withdrawal, especially on the rights of citizens and the obligations arising from the commit- ments that the United Kingdom has made,” Mr Hollande said.

The fate of three million EU citizens living in Britain and one million British people within the bloc’s nations is at the top of leaders’ agenda.

Also looming large is the socalled “exit bill” Britain will have to pay, estimated to be as much as €60 billion (Dh236.5bn).

A first response from the EU to Britain handing in its notice will come from European Union president Donald Tusk today when he issues draft “negotiating guidelines”.

Leaders of the 27 EU countries will hold a special summit on April 29 to approve the plans.