May’s €20b ‘not half enough’ — Macron

Britain must accept a Brexit bill of at least euros 40 billion (Dh173 billion) to unlock trade talks with the EU, Emmanuel Macron said Friday as Theresa May failed to rule out paying an even bigger final total.

The French president said May’s current offer of euros 20 billion is “not halfway there” and Britain would need to make a “substantial financial effort” to move the talks on.

The Prime Minister insisted the size of the “full and final settlement” would not emerge until all aspects of Brexit had been agreed. However, asked whether Britain could end up paying “many more billions” than has been offered, even up to euros 60 billion — the EU’s rumoured target — May would only say that the Brexit department will go through Britain’s financial commitments “line by line” before a crunch EU summit in December.

The Prime Minister hopes the next European Council meeting in two months’ time will be the moment EU leaders finally give the go-ahead for the start of negotiations on a trade deal. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany accepted for the first time that both sides must give ground for negotiations to progress, while Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said talk of deadlock was “exaggerated”.