UK Edition
EU is being 'silly' over stalled Brexit talks, says Philip Hammond
The European Union is being “silly” by not allowing Britain to negotiate on its future after Brexit, Philip Hammond has suggested.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said it was “rather silly” for the UK and EU to get “hung up” on paying a bill to leave the EU before even discussing a future trading relationship.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, has already offered to pay Euro 20billion to leave the EU during a two year transition period after March 2019 and is keen to make progress on the talks.
Mr Hammond made the comments in an interview in New York yesterday with an American broadcaster.
It comes days after Mr Hammond had to apologise for saying the EU was “the enemy” in the talks about Britain leaving the EU in March 2019.
In the interview with CNBC, Mr Hammond said: “We are ready to negotiate, we are absolutely ready to negotiate. The problem is the process that has been laid down which says we can’t start talking about the future and our future relationship until we have settled the question of the budget contribution.
“What we are saying is we can only settle that budget contribution question in the context of knowing what a future relationship is.
“And this seems like a rather silly thing for us to get hung up on. If we could just have a talk about this around a table I am pretty sure we can unstick it.”
Mr Hammond made the remarks in New York hours before Theresa May, the Prime Minister, sat down to dinner with EC President Jean-Claude Juncker in a bid to make a breakthrough in the talks.
The talks broke up on Monday night with both sides agreeing to “accelerate” negotiations.
But while Mrs May and Mr Juncker hailed the talks as "constructive and friendly", the EU appeared to be hardening its position ahead of Thursday's European Council summit.
It emerged that EU leaders will formally demand that the European Court of Justice must oversee the rights of European citizens living in the UK after Brexit.