Theresa May says UK examining Brexit divorce bill 'line by line'

Theresa May has said the UK is examining “line by line” how much it will pay the EU when it leaves the union, which may involve handing over many more billions than the €20bn (£17.9bn) of budget contributions promised so far.

Speaking on Friday, the prime minister did not deny that she had told EU leaders on Thursday night that her Florence speech was “not the final word” on what Britain was willing to pay as a financial settlement for Brexit.

Asked whether it was conceivable that the total bill could reach €60bn, as demanded by the EU, she did not dismiss the sum out of hand, unlike Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, who has said Brussels can “go whistle” for such an amount.

“I’ve been very clear on where we are in relation to the financial settlement,” she said. “I’ve set out the reassurance to our European colleagues and we will go through that line by line in relation to the commitments that we’ve made in our membership.

“And I’ve also said in the past, if there are particular programmes where we wish to continue to be a member then of course we would look at paying relevant costs in relation to that, programmes such as science and research, and perhaps some of the justice issues.”

In her Florence speech, May promised to pay into the EU budget until 2021, at a cost of €20bn, but did not put a price tag on honouring further financial obligations or specify what these would be.

Speaking in Brussels on the last day of the EU summit, she said: “What I’ve made clear in relation to financial contributions is what I set out in my Florence speech. What I’ve said is that [no EU member state] need be concerned about the current budget plan that they will have to pay for or receive less as a result of the UK leaving, and we will honour the commitments we have made during our membership.

“As for the detailed work on those commitments, as David Davis has said, we are going through them line by line and we will continue to go through them line by line. The British taxpayer wouldn’t expect the government to do anything else.”

There are growing suspicions that No 10 will avoid putting a hard figure on how much it will end up paying the EU, although May said the amount would be clear when a final deal was struck at the end of negotiations.

Her remarks came as EU leaders decided that they would not open trade talks with the UK yet, but were prepared to talk about the issue among themselves.

It took the 27 EU leaders just 90 seconds to agree on a statement in which they ruled that insufficient progress had been made over the three key withdrawal issues: citizens’ rights, the Irish border and the financial settlement.

The EU27’s negotiating guidelines for the two-year Brexit talks stipulate that they must take place in two phases: separation and “orderly withdrawal”, followed by future relationship. Only when the EU27 decide “sufficient progress” has been made on phase one can phase two begin.

Broadly, phase one is about providing “clarity and certainty” to people and businesses on Brexit’s consequences and agreeing a sum covering the commitments the UK made as an EU member: avoiding a legal vacuum, protecting citizens’ rights, solving the Irish border, and reaching a financial settlement.

Phase two of the talks will then focus on agreeing the “framework” of the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU. A transition period can also be agreed as part of this second stage, but the detail of the future relationship can only be worked out once the UK has left.

Britain wants to move to stage two fast, but in order to keep as much leverage as possible in talks on the future relationship aims to delay agreeing the financial settlement as long as possible. The EU27 are adamant that all phase one issues must be addressed to their satisfaction before any talk of the future relationship.

It had been clear for days, if not weeks, that the prime minister had not done enough on the issue of Britain’s divorce bill for trade talks to open, and her last-minute appeal over dinner on Thursday failed even to persuade the leaders that some engagement could be had on the terms of a transition period.

The member states, along with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will only discuss internally their vision for a transition period and future relationship, without engaging with the British. The next moment for leaders to decide whether sufficient progress has been made, allowing direct talks on trade and transition, is likely to be a European council summit on 14 December.

The Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, told reporters May’s address over dinner was her “best performance yet” but that the UK’s failure to offer concrete proposals on the financial settlement continued to be the stumbling block.

“I think it was quite a constructive speech that she delivered,” he said. “She made her case in a very eloquent manner but I think it hasn’t really changed anything from before that.

“To be honest, I think it was her best performance yet in the sense that it conveyed a warm, candid and sincere appeal that she wants progress to be made that she has moved her position.”

The Austrian chancellor, Christian Kern, said: “It is clear to see there is rhetorical progress, but we need to come to conclusions because uncertainty is not good for the continent and economies. It is up the to the British government to propose something that is the basis for progress.”

Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president of Lithuania, echoed those comments, but also suggested the EU needed to stop posturing.

“[We need to move] from words to real deeds. And probably we all – not only the UK, us also – it is time go for real negotiations and and not just negotiating in the media by rhetoric

… It is time to go straight to the table.”

Asked if she agreed with Muscat, that the speech was May’s best effort so far, she said: “If we talk about rhetorical abilities, maybe, but in negotiations you need concrete negotiation abilities, not only rhetoric.”

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said: “We have some details but we don’t have all the details we need. Work is going on.”