Five hours before Theresa May accused European Union officials of interfering with the upcoming U.K. election, the EU produced its most detailed Brexit negotiating plans yet.<\/p>\n
Overtaken by Wednesday\u2019s events in London, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier\u2019s provisional mandate nevertheless spells out the bloc\u2019s red lines as the clock ticks down to the formal launch of talks soon after the British head to the polls on June 8. Here are the key points:<\/p>\n
The \u201cfinancial settlement,\u201d as the EU calls it, still doesn\u2019t have a figure on it, and isn\u2019t likely to for some time. In fact, the number, estimated to be somewhere between 40 billion euros\u00a0($43.7 billion) and 100 billion euros, could continue changing right up until Brexit day as EU projects come and go.<\/p>\n
The EU is looking for the U.K. to agree only on a methodology for the calculation as a first step. The bloc wants it to take into account Britain\u2019s promised contributions to the central EU budget, the U.K.\u2019s obligations toward EU bodies such as the European Investment Bank, and its participation in specific projects like the program for refugees in Turkey.<\/p>\n
The EU also wants the U.K. to pay all the costs associated with Brexit, including the relocation of EU agencies out of London. EU officials ruled out the U.K. having any claim on EU assets that could offset the size of the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must settle the accounts, nothing more and nothing less,\u201d Barnier said.<\/p>\n
The U.K. will get a shock if it thinks assuring citizens\u2019 rights will be straight forward. The EU has a long list of rights it wants to see protected for what officials say are around 4.5 million EU citizens living in the U.K. and British people living in the EU, and many more who have moved back to their home countries after accumulating rights.<\/p>\n
The message to Britain is clear: the EU wants those people to \u201clive their lives as if Brexit never happened,\u201d according to one EU official.<\/p>\n
For anyone moving to the U.K. before Brexit day, the EU wants to ensure full pension and social security rights and comparable tax advantages for as long as they live. They also should have the ability to gain permanent residency after five years of continuous stay.<\/p>\n
The EU also wants the deal to include the spouses and children of the citizens, too, even if they join them in the U.K. after the withdrawal date. When home secretary, May fought against the right of British citizens to bring non-EU spouses to Britain so this could quickly become a flashpoint.<\/p>\n
While May has vowed to stop the\u00a0EU Court of Justice from having any oversight in Britain, the EU\u2019s negotiating mandate sets out several reasons why that shouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
An EU citizen living in Britain, having acquired pre-Brexit rights, should have recourse to Europe\u2019s courts if not satisfied with a British Supreme Court decision, the mandate says.<\/p>\n
The ECJ also should have a role in ensuring the U.K. pays the agreed bill as well as enforcing the agreement as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever EU law is concerned, for example with regard to citizens, we must rely in the long term on the EU Court of Justice,\u201d Barnier said.<\/p>\n
The EU has been saying for months that it won\u2019t comply with the prime minister\u2019s request to start talks on a future trade agreement in parallel to the divorce deal.<\/p>\n
If there was any doubt about their seriousness, that was extinguished in the negotiating mandate. It doesn\u2019t even include any reference to the EU\u2019s position on the matter, only that the EU will start talking about it (what it calls \u201cphase 2\u201d) once the 27 remaining countries decide that \u201csufficient progress\u201d has been made on the divorce agreement.<\/p>\n
Neither side wants the U.K. to fall off a cliff when it leaves the EU, even if a trade agreement isn\u2019t in place.<\/p>\n
The EU document specifically refers to \u201cbridges toward the foreseeable framework for the future relationship\u201d as being needed in the next negotiating mandate. But again, only after \u201csufficient progress\u201d so it\u2019s in the U.K.\u2019s interest to play ball.<\/p>\n
Only the EU\u2019s 27 leaders can agree on that — and they have to do so unanimously before \u201cphase 2\u201d can begin.<\/p>\n
But on citizens\u2019 rights, for example, the U.K. has to give \u201cvery clear commitments and guarantees rather than nice rhetoric,\u201d an EU official said.<\/p>\n
The negotiating mandate says the Brexit agreement should ensure the transfer of ownership to the U.K. of “special fissile material located on the territory of the European Atomic Energy Community,” the organization that stewards nuclear cooperation between the bloc\u2019s members.<\/p>\n
That means that nuclear waste currently stored in the U.K. would no longer be an EU responsibility, even though much of it originated in the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n
The EU lists other areas where there needs to be agreement:<\/p>\n
The two sides don\u2019t even agree on when Britain will officially leave. The U.K. has said it envisages leaving the bloc when London\u2019s Big Ben chimes at midnight on March 29, 2019.<\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s mandate refers to midnight Brussels time — which is only 11 p.m. in the U.K.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five hours before Theresa May accused European Union officials of interfering with the upcoming U.K. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n