Britain ‘won’t have to pay £50billion bill for leaving EU’

BRITAIN will not have to pay a £50billion Brexit ‘divorce bill’ demanded by Brussels, according to a report published yesterday.

EU treaties state that obligations to contribute to the bloc’s budget do not apply to a member state after it leaves the union, leading city law firm Clifford Chance concluded.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, called for a ‘divorce payment’ of up to £50billion to cover future obligations such as pensions, and may demand that the issue is dealt with before negotiations on a new trade deal between Britain and the rest of the bloc can begin.

But the report says there is nothing in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU’s key legal document, to suggest Britain should pay a single penny to the EU after Brexit.

It says the agreement ‘ expressly provides that the EU’s treaties cease to apply to a former member state on its withdrawal from the EU’.

The firm said the UK could even claim a share of the EU’s assets, which are currently worth £130billion, due to the UK’s financial contributions over the years while a member. Any refund for the UK would be ‘any- thing but easy’, and Clifford Chance makes no estimate of the likely value. But, based on the UK’s 15 per cent contribution to EU funds, it could be worth as much as £20billion.

The report suggests the EU could try to seek cash from Britain under the terms of the Vienna Convention, which says that signatories to international treaties are bound by obligations ‘created through the execution of the treaty prior to its termination’.

But it says there is no explicit provision for this in EU law.

Former Tory Cabinet minister John Redwood said the lack of reference to future payments meant it would be ‘illegal’ for the Government to continue to hand money to Brussels after we leave the EU.

He said: ‘There is no legal obligation for anything other than paying your contributions up to the date of departure. If any minister is thinking they might like to make a payment as part of a deal then they would need primary legislation – and I think the popular will in the country would be against Parliament passing such legislation.’