EU plot to squeeze UK for bigger Brexit bill

BRUSSELS has planned tougher Brexit negotiating demands in an attempt to force the UK to foot an even higher divorce bill and accept EU red tape for years to come.

Details of a significantly firmer strategy are detailed in a leaked blueprint drawn up by diplomats.

The proposals could lead to bitter clashes during the early stages of talks after ministers said the UK has no obligation to pay the full settlement – estimated at up to £52billion.

The revelations come as European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier travel to Downing Street today to discuss the scope of negotiations before the UK takes to the polls in June.

The revised guidelines reveal how the EU will force the City of London to accept its rules before agreeing a deal.

The draft text sets out how negotiators will demand the UK’s financial services sector ‘respect (the EU’s) regulatory and supervisory regime and standards and their application’. Diplomats also inserted a clause that would mean a deal

‘Guarantee financial stability’

could only be reached if the UK guarantees to ‘safeguard financial stability in the Union’.

The document also calls for the UK to grant permanent residence to EU citizens who arrive before Brexit in 2019 and stay for five more years.

And Brussels wants the European Court of Justice to be allowed to settle future disputes involving EU citizens in the UK. Britain’s divorce bill was widened to cover an EU spending plan which runs to 2020 rather than 2019.

Dispute over the bill follows claims by government lawyers that the UK has no duty to pay a penny towards the EU’s ongoing costs after leaving.

The final draft of the guidelines – originally produced by European Council chief Donald Tusk last month – will be signed off by EU leaders on Saturday. A separate leaked document prepared by the European Commission also calls for the UK to bear all administrative costs linked to Brexit, potentially including travel fees and the relocation of EU buildings.