UK Times reporting

  • Britain is preparing to demand a substantial share of European Union assets
  • Worth more than €150 billion
  • As an attempt to cut the cost of the Brexit divorce bill
  • Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, is understood to be preparing a list of up to €60 billion of liabilities, including spending commitments signed off by Britain before the referendum that will be owed by the UK when it officially leaves in 2019
  • However, officials in Whitehall are understood to be drawing up their own list of EU financial assets and the government thinks that it is entitled to a significant share.
  • Bruegel, an independent think tank in Brussels, made the first attempt to estimate the scale of these assets yesterday, placing them at €152.5 billion.

More at the Times, gated