KEEP PAYING OUR AID BILL, DEMANDS EU

Brussels in trade deal threat if we don’t fund THEIR plans

BRITAIN is being asked to continue funding the EU’s foreign aid programme after Brexit, it emerged last night.

The EU’s demand for a £ 90billion ‘divorce bill’ was branded ‘absurd’ as details of the claim emerged at a press conference in Brussels.

Its chief negotiator Michel Barnier said there had been ‘no decisive progress’ at the third round of Brexit talks this week.

He then revealed some of the EU’s financial demands, including that funding for foreign aid, green projects and refugee programmes continues after Britain has left. It also emerged the UK could be asked to keep paying into the EU’s coffers during any ‘transitional deal’.

Mr Barnier suggested he would try to block progress on a new EU-UK trade deal unless Britain agrees to meet the demands.

But Brexit Secretary David Davis, who clashed repeatedly with Mr Barnier during the press conference, made it clear the UK did not accept the EU’s claim, saying: ‘We have a duty to our taxpayers to interrogate it rigorously.’

He rebuked Mr Barnier for suggesting British Brexit demands were driven by ‘nostalgia’ for EU membership, saying: ‘I wouldn’t confuse a belief in the free market for nostalgia.’

The apparent deadlock will increase pressure on Theresa May to appeal directly to German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron to begin trade talks in defiance of Brussels. But Mr Barnier issued a stern warning that any attempts to go over the commission’s head on the issue would fail.

He struggled to contain his fury that the UK had produced a legal analysis rejecting the basis for the EU’s financial claim – and threatened to delay discussions of a future trading relationship unless Britain agrees to pay for a number

From Claire Ellicott Political Correspondent in Brussels ‘Obligations beyond Brexit’

of schemes. It follows four days of negotiations that brought little progress – Brussels is demanding concessions on the divorce bill so that trade talks can begin, but Mr Davis blamed the bloc’s inflexibility for the deadlock.

Mr Barnier also warned that the UK’s request for access to the single market without accepting the supremacy of the European Court of Justice was ‘impossible’.

He criticised Britain’s plan to have EU standards cut and pasted into UK law and be automatically recognised by the EU. ‘You cannot be outside the single market and shape its legal order,’ he said.

Mr Davis responded: ‘We have proposed pragmatic solutions to prevent this disruption and we urge the EU to be more imaginative and flexible in their approach to withdrawal on this point.’

On the divorce bill, Mr Barnier said it ‘wouldn’t be fair’ for Britain not to pay for ongoing commitments undertaken with other members. ‘In July, the UK recognised it has obligations beyond the Brexit date but this week the UK explained it felt its obligations were limited to the last payment of the current EU budget,’ he added.

The EU negotiator listed commitments he claimed Britain had agreed to that extend beyond the end of the current budget period in 2020 – and rounded on the country for refusing to honour them.

He demanded that the UK agree to pay towards green infrastructure, foreign aid for Africa and the Caribbean, and loans to Ukraine.

Among examples of green projects in a European Commission report were bridges for wildlife to cross the road, ladders for fish and green roofs for nesting birds.

Permeable pavements, urban forests and plans to restore bogs were also suggested in the report.

Mr Barnier also demanded Britain continue providing funds for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific through the European Development Fund.

The EU set out a paper in June listing financial commitments it thinks Britain should agree to pay towards as part of the divorce bill. These includes refugees in Turkey, a trust fund for the Central African Republic and Colombia, and the European Asylum Support Office.

But Mr Barnier said yesterday: ‘After this week it is clear that the UK does not feel legally obliged to honour these obligations after its departure.’

Discussions on trade were meant to begin in October if Brussels decided ‘sufficient progress’ had been made on the rights of EU citizens in Britain, the Irish border and the divorce bill.

Mr Barnier yesterday suggested he would try to block trade talks unless progress was made, saying: ‘ There has been no decisive progress on any of the principle subjects … Time is passing quickly and was short to start with.’

Last night Brexit backer Jacob Rees-Mogg said: ‘If a member state that was a net recipient of funds left, would the EU be rushing to give it a cheque? Its demands are absurd and no sensible government could yield to them.’