The EU has outlined its Brexit strategy, suggesting trade talks could begin after “sufficient progress” on a separation settlement with the UK.<\/p>\n
The draft guidelines, announced by European Council President Donald Tusk in Malta, advocate a “phased approach”.<\/p>\n
They will be sent to the 27 member states for approval and will set the tone for two years of negotiations.<\/p>\n
In Brussels, the EU’s foreign policy chief suggested the EU could manage without the UK in defence matters.<\/p>\n
The UK formally triggered the Brexit process on Wednesday after calling for simultaneous talks on exit terms and future trade ties.<\/p>\n
At a news conference, Mr Tusk said: “Starting parallel talks on all issues at the same time as suggested by some in the UK will not happen.<\/p>\n
“Only once we have achieved sufficient progress on the withdrawal can we discuss the framework for our future relationship.”<\/p>\n
Talks would be “difficult, complex and sometimes even confrontational”, he predicted, but the EU would not “pursue a punitive approach”.<\/p>\n
UK Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggered the Brexit process by sending the Article 50 notification letter to Mr Tusk on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The two are to meet in London ahead of an EU summit on Brexit, which will not include her, on 29 April.<\/p>\n
So what’s the ‘divorce’ bill?<\/strong><\/p>\n The draft says the EU’s overall objective is “to preserve its interests, those of its member states, its citizens and its businesses”.<\/p>\n Calling for a “phased approach giving priority to an orderly withdrawal”, it suggests starting with discussions on the separation arrangement. They could then move on to talks about a future trade relationship between the EU and the UK.<\/p>\n The draft raises the issue of the UK financial bills with the EU, estimated to be as much as \u20ac60bn (\u00a351bn; $64bn).<\/p>\n In a sign of the bloc’s determination to secure a “divorce bill”, it says that a “single financial settlement should ensure that the Union and the United Kingdom both respect the obligations undertaken before the date of withdrawal”.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The EU has outlined its Brexit strategy, suggesting trade talks could begin after “sufficient progress” on a separation settlement with the UK. The draft guidelines, announced by European Council President Donald Tusk in Malta, advocate a “phased approach”. They will be sent to the 27 member states for approval and will set the tone for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3355,5514,5105],"class_list":["post-306800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-brexit","tag-european-union","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}