4 minutes and £50bn Brexit bill for Britain
THERESA May yesterday was warned there was no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ as EU leaders set uncompromising terms for Brexit.
The leaders, meeting without Mrs May for the first time since she triggered Article 50, burst into applause after taking only four minutes to approve guidelines for the UK’s ‘orderly withdrawal’ from the EU.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker took a swipe at Mrs May, accusing her of ‘underestimating’ the complexity of the process.
But Mrs May hit back by making clear she would not be bullied by Brussels, while Brexit Secretary David Davis warned the EU not to stand in the way of a deal.
On an election campaign visit to Scotland yesterday, Mrs May renewed her appeal for a ‘strong mandate’ to ‘strengthen our negotiating hand’ with the EU.
In Brussels, the EU leaders agreed that Britain will be handed a ‘divorce bill’ for as much as £50billion, which it says the UK owes.
Britain will also have to promise to secure the rights of the three million EU citizens in the country and promise not to build a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, while Spain also gets a controversial veto on any deal affecting Gibraltar.
One by one, the leaders lined up to hammer home the costs of Brexit, with outgoing French president Francois Hollande warning that ‘there will inevitably be a price and a cost for Britain, it’s the choice they made’. German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble declared bluntly: ‘There is no free lunch. Britons must know that.’
Mr Juncker also spoke of the talks he held with Mrs May in London on Wednesday, saying that every time he asked questions about the British strategy she responded: ‘Be patient and be ambitious.’
He added: ‘I have the impression sometimes that our British friends, not all of them, do underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face.’
In regard to EU nationals living in the UK, he said: ‘We have already prepared a text which could be adopted immediately if our British friends would be willing to sign it, but that probably won’t happen.’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was more emollient, saying there was ‘no conspiracy against the British’.