Europe rejects UK calls for new withdrawal agreement

The European Commission has rejected calls for the Brexit withdrawal agreement to be rewritten after senior Tories complained it could leave the UK liable for £160bn (€178bn) of unpaid loans.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the deal means Britain is “hooked into the EU’s loan book”.

But Brussels said the commitments made in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill – the divorce signed by Boris Johnson and the 27 EU members – are reasonable and will stand.

Mr Duncan Smith claimed that the UK’s liabilities go far beyond the £39bn (€43bn) divorce deal – although the full scale of the financial implications will depend on defaults on loans made available through the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Financial Stability Mechanism.

Commission spokesman Eric Mamer insisted that the withdrawal agreement is a “firm document” which is not going to be rewritten.

He said: “I think it’s very clear that we are not going to get into a debate with British politicians on liabilities or any other of the provisions of the withdrawal agreement.

“The withdrawal agreement is there, it is now a firm document that has been accepted by both parties and it is the basis on which both sides are acting.

“In this document it is clear that the UK has taken a certain number of completely normal legal commitments when it comes to its share of liabilities related to loans that would have been given by the EIB whilst the UK was still a member of the European Union.”

Mr Duncan Smith claimed that the EU “want our money and they want to stop us being a competitor”.

He said the withdrawal agreement “costs too much”, “denies us true national independence” and “has to go”.

“Britain faces a £160bn EU loans bill after Brexit,” he said.

Meanwhile, the number of British people moving to EU countries soared after the Brexit vote in 2016, according to a UK-German study released yesterday.

An analysis of official statistics by the Oxford in Berlin research partnership and the Berlin-based WZB Social Science Centre found that migration from the UK to other EU countries rose by 30pc, from about 57,000 a year in 2008-2015 to more than 73,000 a year in 2016-2018. Spain saw the largest number of UK arrivals, followed by France.

David Hughes

source:independent.ie