EU’S Brexit negotiator sets hard line

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said Wednesday that Britain must meet tough conditions in divorce talks — and doesn’t have long to do it — before the two sides can start looking at a future relationship.

Showing frustration with what Europeans consider British grandstanding and impatience with a dearth of clear proposals, the EU’S Michel Barnier said Britain needs to make “sufficient progress” on all the initial issues — citizens’ rights, the bill that Britain must pay to the EU and the Irish border — before talks can move to a future trade deal.

Barnier said the three areas “are indivisible and intertwined,” making clear that progress in two of the three would be insufficient to advance to the next stage.

And he insisted that Britain recognize it faces a bill of many tens of billions of euros to meet previous commitments it made as an EU member.

“It’s not an exit bill. It’s not a punishment. It’s not revenge — at no time has it been those things. It’s simply a settling of accounts,” he said.

Barnier dismissed British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s comment that the EU can “go whistle” if it will insist on Britain paying any excessive bill.

“I am not hearing any whistling, just the clock ticking,” Barnier said.

Estimates of the amount Britain must pay to cover pension liabilities for EU staff and other commitments such as farming subsidies to humanitarian aid have ranged upward to 100 billion euros ($114 billion).

The first issue being addressed by the two sides — citizens’ rights for people living in each other’s nations — is already posing serious problems. The European Parliament has dismissed the proposals made by May, calling them insufficient and burdensome.