LONDON ¨C Brexit Secretary David Davis said the U.K. government won¡¯t accept a reported bill of as much as €100 billion ($110 billion) from the European Union as part of the deal for leaving the bloc.
¡°We¡¯ll not be paying 100 billion,¡± Davis told ITV Wednesday when asked about a Financial Times report that said EU negotiators had revised their initial calculations upward. ¡°We¡¯ve never seen a number¡± from the EU, Davis said. He refused to specify how much Britain is prepared to pay, saying ¡°what we¡¯ve got to do is discuss in detail what the rights and obligations are.¡± The EU has previously said the bill would be around €60 billion.
The FT said that according to its calculations, the new net figure for the bill would be as much as €75 billion, once Britain¡¯s share of EU spending and repaid loans were accounted for. The newspaper¡¯s previous calculations had given a net figure of €40 billion to €60 billion, in line with the EU¡¯s estimate.
Davis also rejected as ¡°gossip and spin¡± a weekend report in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker had expressed shock and skepticism at U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May¡¯s approach to negotiating Brexit after a dinner meeting last week.
The dinner at May¡¯s No. 10 Downing Street residence was ¡°constructive,¡± said Davis, who was one of 10 people in the room. ¡°There were some disagreements,¡± he said, but the atmosphere was ¡°absolutely not¡± hostile.
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