Theresa May fires a hard one against the European Union, as
Britain look forward to getting back refunds running into billions of pounds from
the EU instead of paying billions tagged exit fee, as demanded by Brussels,
According to a source from the UK government, the country is
fully ready to hit back with the counter demand, should Brussels brings up a stringent
exit bill
"This is being presented in a binary way as a divorce
bill, in which we owe them," the source said.
"It's not like that - it's more like leaving a gym or a
club.
"You don't continue to pay for other people to use the
facilities after you leave."
In a similar vein, a Downing Street spokesman states that:
"That will be something that will be dealt with during the
negotiation."
Recent legal advice from the House of Lords stated that
Britain was not obliged to pay a penny in a “divorce” settlement to the EU
under international law. However, the EU’s chief negotiator is understood to be
preparing to demand the cash when the talks begin in earnest this summer.
Some government officials are of the opinion that Britain
could end up being refunded about £9 billion which is being held by the
European Investment Bank. The said amount is based on an estimate of the
present worth of British taxpayers’ investment into the EU’s institution.
Similarly, separate study has advocated that Britain could
be entitled to a further £14billion worth of EU assets including property, cash
and other investments.
Tory MP David Nuttall described the move to prepare a
register of the estimated share of EU assets as "sensible."
"I would expect that they will be doing this.
"There has been a lot of speculation and rumours. It
seems to be to be perfectly sensible," Mr Nuttall said.
"We have been paying into this organisation for years.
Clearly, the EU has assets.
"If they are going to start saying we owe them money
for all these things, it seems common sense that we should be able to ask what
about all the assets that we have helped to build up in the past.
"We should sweep that to one side and say honestly,
these back of the envelope calculations do nobody any good."
Henry Newman, director of the think tank Open Europe, said
the balance sheet "must consider not just the UK’s commitments, but also
its share of EU assets and claims".
Potential assets for the UK could include a proportion of EU
buildings such as embassies and administration headquarters, future spending
earmarked for the UK and loans, Mr Newman said.
"Theresa May has - rightly - accepted the principle
that both sides should settle their outstanding commitments.
"But while we should agree a methodology for doing this
early on, there's no way any British PM could agree to signing a blank cheque
at the start of negotiations," he added.
A month ago, Boris Johnson advised the Prime Minister to implement
her predecessor Margaret Thatcher's approach to financial wrangling with
Brussels.
“I think we have illustrious precedent in this matter: I
think you can recall the 1984 Fontainebleau summit in which Mrs Thatcher said
she wanted her money back and I think that is exactly what we will get,"
the Foreign Secretary said.
Many Euro-sceptic Tory MPs have argued that Britain should
avoid getting sucked into a wrangle over exit payments or refunds. They believe
that both parties should accept a clean break with no payments in either
direction other than those for existing payments such as pensions and salaries
for officials.
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