£50bn bill is just what you owe us, EU chief tells UK
BREXIT backers yesterday hit at European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker for insisting that Britain will owe Brussels £50billion to get out of the bloc.
He said it was not a “punishment” for leaving, just a settling of commitments.
Mr Juncker told the BBC: “We have to calculate scientifically what the British commitments were and then the bill must be paid.”
The EU says the divorce bill covers liabilities for projects the UK agreed to help fund, as well as pensions for officials who served during its membership.
Mr Juncker said: “There will be no sanctions, no punishment.
“But Britain has to honour its commitments.”
Despite calling the Brexit vote “a failure and a tragedy”, he added: “I am anything but in a hostile mood when it comes to Britain.
“We will negotiate in a friendly way, a fair way.”
He also made it clear that he shares Theresa May’s intention to make it a priority in talks – after she invokes Article 50 on Wednesday, triggering Brexit negotiations – to protect the status of EU nationals in Britain and British expats on the continent.
Conservative MEP David Campbell Bannerman said: “Mr Juncker has plucked a figure of £50billion out of thin air.
“No deal! No club bills a departing member for future investment.
“As the second largest contributor to the EU, Britain has paid enough to Brussels – £380billion net is the combined figure.
“These unelected bureaucrats need to accept that the British taxpayer is not some sort of money tree.
“The bigger question is, as the EU has more than £130billion of assets, how much does it owe Britain?”
Pro-Brexit Tory MP Philip Davies added: “When a partnership is dissolved, it is common for the partners to divide the assets.”
Leading Eurocrats also pleaded for other countries not to destroy the EU by following Britain out.
Mr Juncker said: “Let’s suppose for one second that others will leave – two, three, four or five. That would be the end.”
European Council president Donald Tusk said he was sure the EU would “turn the corner” after the shock of Brexit.
Mr Juncker also told a newspaper that former prime minister David Cameron will be remembered for destroying the UK by holding the Brexit referendum.
THE European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker says that Brussels will approach the negotiation for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU (which he persists in calling “a failure and a tragedy”) in a friendly way. But that bill for £50billion? That still has to be paid he insists even though he doesn’t want anyone to think it’s some sort of “punishment”. Well, if that’s what he calls friendly then one wouldn’t care to see him when he was being actively hostile.
This ludicrous, made-up figure of £50billion has been bounced around for months. Britain has absolutely no obligation to stump up this kind of payment and would be perfectly in its rights to demand payment from Brussels instead to reflect our vast contribution to the EU’s assets and coffers.