Brexit: Toljaso

The European Commission wants Britain to pick up the tab for any costs related to its departure from the EU, such as the relocation of agencies now hosted by the U.K., and bear the currency risk by paying in euros, according to a draft of Brussels’ negotiating plan.

The hard line for the Brexit talks, laid out in a draft of the Commission’s detailed negotiating directives obtained by POLITICO, also includes tight protections for EU citizens and the EU budget, robust legal controls for any transitional phase for U.K. withdrawal, and clear guarantees for businesses whose goods go on the market before the “divorce” is finalized.

But it is the Commission’s approach to the U.K.’s ongoing financial obligations to the EU that stands out in the document, suggesting that Brussels wants to make it very clear that leaving the bloc doesn’t come cheap.

“The United Kingdom should fully cover the specific costs related to the withdrawal process such as the relocation of the agencies or other Union bodies,” the Commission wrote, adding that the U.K.’s financial obligations to the EU “should be defined in euro” rather than sterling.

I thought that once the Euros dug into this, that they would not be inclined to go easy on the UK. As they get deeper into the weeds of the negotiations, I would look for the EU to take a hard line at every point. It is not in their interest to make it easy for member states to bug out and it is very much in their interest to make an example out of the Brits.