EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier: There's 'no going back' on Brexit divorce deal

Mr Barnier told MEPs that the integrity of the EU single market and the preservation of freedom of movement will be “non-negotiable”

EPA

Nicholas Cecil, Political Editor @nicholascecil13 December 2017

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier today warned there is “no going back” on the divorce deal agreed between Britain and the European Commission.

He also told MEPs that the integrity of the EU single market and the preservation of freedom of movement will be “non-negotiable” in trade talks with the UK.

Mr Barnier issued the warnings after Brexit Secretary David Davis caused confusion by saying the blueprint on the divorce bill of up to £39 billion, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and EU citizens’ rights was “much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing”.

The agreement was enough for the Commission to agree “sufficient progress” had been made to move on to talks about a transition period and trade deal but Mr Davis’s comments sparked concerns in Brussels that Britain could seek to backtrack on it.

Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Barnier stressed this morning: “There is no going back on this sufficient progress, this progress has been noted and recorded and is going to be translated into a legally binding withdrawal agreement” he said.

“These are prerequisites and conditions for continuing with the negotiations in a smooth fashion.”

MEPs were debating last week’s joint report on the UK’s divorce settlement and were set to vote on cross-party amendments tabled by the parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt, calling on the UK to “fully respect” last week’s deal.

Mr Verhofstadt said he had spoken by phone with Mr Davis, who assured him it was “absolutely not the intention of the UK Government to backtrack on their commitments”.

“The best way to secure this is that, in the coming weeks, we transpose all these commitments into the legal text of a Withdrawal Agreement. That is the best way to do it, and to do it not in the coming months but the coming weeks,” he added.

Noting that in his contacts with EU nationals in the UK “nobody seems to trust the Home Office”, he said it would be vital to ensure that the cost and burden of registration procedures should fall on the Government and not on families.

Ukip MEP Nigel Farage said the proposed transition period was “the biggest deception yet played on the British people”.