{"id":8287,"date":"2017-03-04T08:35:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T08:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/brexit-uk-not-obliged-to-pay-divorce-bill-say-peers\/"},"modified":"2017-03-04T08:35:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T08:35:52","slug":"brexit-uk-not-obliged-to-pay-divorce-bill-say-peers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/brexit-uk-not-obliged-to-pay-divorce-bill-say-peers\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: UK &#8216;not obliged&#8217; to pay divorce bill say peers"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Angela Merkel and Theresa May\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/1CF5\/production\/_94931470_mediaitem94931469.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  AP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Talks on the UK&#039;s exit are expected to start in the Spring                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">The UK could exit the EU without paying anything if there is no post-Brexit deal, a group of peers has claimed.<\/p>\n<p>The government would be in a &quot;strong&quot; legal position if the two-year Article 50 talks ended with no deal, the Lords EU Financial Affairs Committee said.<\/p>\n<p>But it warned failure to reach any kind of financial terms would undermine PM Theresa May&#039;s aim of securing continued favourable access to EU markets.<\/p>\n<p>It has been reported the EU may demand a &quot;divorce bill&quot; of up to \u00a352bn.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reality Check: EU budget and transitional deal<\/li>\n<li>Brexit: All you need to know<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mrs May has warned the EU against punishing the UK for voting to leave in last year&#039;s referendum but several EU leaders have said the UK cannot enjoy better arrangements outside the EU than it currently has. <\/p>\n<p>The question of what, if anything, the UK remains financially liable for after Brexit is likely to be one of the flashpoints in negotiations when they begin in earnest.<\/p>\n<p>Potential sticking points are likely to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whether already-agreed contributions to the EU budget should be honoured and up to what point<\/li>\n<li>What the UK should pay to continue to participate in EU programmes such as Erasmus<\/li>\n<li>Whether the UK chooses to pay to retain access to the single market on a transitional basis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      The UK contributes to structural funds designed to reduce inequality across Europe                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The cross-party committee said talk of billions in pounds in liabilities was &quot;hugely speculative&quot; and there was a case that there may be no upfront cost to leaving. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Although there are competing interpretations, we conclude that if agreement is not reached, all EU law - including provisions concerning ongoing financial contributions and machinery for adjudication - will cease to apply, and the UK would be subject to no enforceable obligation to make any financial contribution at all,&quot; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This would be undesirable for the remaining member states, who would have to decide how to plug the hole in the budget created by the UK&#039;s exit without any kind of transition. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;It would also damage the prospects of reaching friendly agreement on other issues.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Nonetheless, the ultimate possibility of the UK walking away from negotiations without incurring financial commitments provides an important context.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The peers, led by the LibDem peer Baroness Falkner of Margravine, said some member states could take legal action against the UK for any outstanding liabilities but it was &quot;questionable&quot; whether any international court could have jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Even though we consider that the UK will not be legally obliged to pay into the EU budget after Brexit, the issue will be a prominent factor in withdrawal negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The government will have to set the financial and political costs of making such payments against potential gains from other elements of the negotiations.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>During their inquiry, the committee was told the UK had signed up to &quot;concrete&quot; commitments under the terms of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, which sets a ceiling for EU spending up to 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Takis Tridimas, from Kings College London, said he believed these were legally binding under existing EU treaties.<\/p>\n<p>But he said they could be amended in &quot;unforeseeable circumstances&quot;, if all member states agreed, and that the Brexit vote would constitute such a circumstance.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-39154218 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright APImage caption Talks on the UK&#039;s exit are expected to start in the Spring The UK could exit the EU without paying anything if there is no post-Brexit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}