Brexit should be a divorce not a war, says top EU judge

BRUSSELS is treating Brexit talks like a war that could prove dangerous for the future of the bloc, a former EU judge has warned.

In a blistering attack on the hardline strategy, Franklin Dehousse told EU bosses to wake up to reality and said their exaggerated demands risked causing talks to break down.

The academic, who retired from the European Court of Justice last year, likened Britain’s imminent departure to a prison-break because of the uncompromising approach devised by Brussels.

Mr Dehousse said that some of the demands drawn up by the EU, which include calls for residency rights for EU citizens here, are ‘hardly defendable’.

Writing for the Egmont think-tank, he said: ‘The EU must be extremely careful about the precedents it is creating now.

‘Most people do not see it, as they did not believe before that Article 50 would ever be used, but there will be other exits from the EU.’ Mr Dehousse, a professor in European

‘Should strive to make it amicable’

law, added: ‘Article 50 was invented, after all, to show that the EU was not a prison.

‘We must apply it accordingly. This is not a war, but a divorce, and all of us should strive to make it an amiable one.’

He questioned the competency of the ECJ, whose jurisdiction Theresa May has vowed to end after we leave the EU.

Describing the possibility of the court’s lasting authority in the UK after Brexit, he said: ‘One wonders how this is considered acceptable for a sovereign state.’

EU negotiating papers released this week outlined how the bloc wants the court to rule on disputes concerning EU citizens living in the UK for decades to come. Brussels chiefs have also called for residency rights and benefits to extend to family members who decide to move to the UK ‘at any point in time’.

Mr Dehousse said the demands would effectively transform EU citizens in the UK into a ‘sort of a super-privileged caste’.