The European Union expects Britain to honour all financial obligations made during its membership of the bloc even after a no-deal Brexit, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Monday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday if Britain leaves without a divorce deal, it will no longer legally owe the £39 billion agreed by his predecessor.
“All commitments that were taken by the 28 member states should be honoured. This is also and especially true in a no-deal scenario where the United Kingdom would be expected to continue to honour all commitments made during EU membership,” spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.
“Rather than going now into a judicial action threat, I think that it is important to make clear that settling accounts is essential to starting of a new relationship on the right foot, based on mutual trust,” she said, adding London had not formally raised the issue with the EU so far.
Earlier British media reported Johnson would use a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk on the sidelines of the G7 Summit to set out that Britain would pay less than £10 billion of the settlement if it leaves without a deal.
“I think what the entire European Union understands is that if we come out without a deal then…the 39 billion is no longer legally pledged,” Johnson told Sky News, when asked if he had told EU leaders this week he planned to withhold the money.
“As I’ve said many, many times we will therefore on November 1 have very substantial sums available from that 39 billion to spend on supporting our farmers…and indeed for investment in all sorts of areas.”
Johnson told European Council President Donald Tusk that Britain would be leaving the European Union on Oct. 31 whatever the circumstances, a British official said on Sunday after the two met at a G7 summit in France.
Ahead of the meeting, Tusk and Johnson had sparred over who would be to blame should Britain leave the EU on Oct. 31 without a divorce deal in place.
Johnson told Tusk that his preference remained to seek a deal with the EU, and repeated that he would still be willing to sit down and talk with the EU and member states, the official said.
“The PM repeated that we will be leaving the EU on the 31st of October whatever the circumstances, we must respect the referendum result,” the official said.
The two will meet again at the United Nations General Assembly next month.
An EU official, who declined to be named, said the meeting had mainly restated known positions.
“We need input from their side. … What we would ideally have been hoping for and looking for were new elements to unblock the situation, said an EU official. “But, it was absolutely cordial all the time. It was not difficult.”
