Now they want us to pay for breeding brown bears in Spain

AN EU scheme to breed brown bears in the Pyrenees is among the projects that Britain is being asked to fund after Brexit.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has set out a series of financial demands as part of the so-called Brexit bill.

Among them was a green infrastructure strategy that could involve funding bridges to help wildlife cross roads and ladders for fish to cross streams.

Now it has emerged that Britain is also being ordered to pay for the scheme to breed bears even after leaving the EU, according to The Sun.

The project, backed by £1.6billion in EU funding, will draw up a blueprint on how bears and humans can co-exist in Catalonia, Spain.

It is due to continue past March 2019, when Britain formally leaves the.

The EU requests for funding, which also included access to green spaces for hyperactive children, as well as foreign aid payments, were branded ‘absurd’ by leading Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg.

They were among several examples cited by Mr Barnier of spending that the EU wants Britain to contribute to after it leaves the bloc.

These include the £12billion European Development Fund, which distributes cash to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Previous contributions have been spent on trapeze lessons in Tanzania, a study on coconut development and trips to Jamaica for EU spin doctors.

Brussels has also pledged at least £10.3billion in long-term loans to Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea and threatened the country.