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Olly Robbins, the prime minister’s top EU adviser, has contacted his counterparts in several European capitals to reassure them Mrs May’s speech on Friday in Florence would include the financial offer, according to officials briefed on the discussions.
Mrs May’s team is hoping the offer will break a three-month deadlock in Brexit talks with Brussels and allow them to move to a second phase of negotiations that would open discussions about a future trading relationship between the EU and the UK.
UK officials have indicated Britain would ensure no member state would have to pay more into the EU budget or receive less money from it until 2020, the end of EU’s current long-term budget planning period. The expected hole in those two years after Brexit would be at least €20bn when payments the UK receives back from Brussels are excluded.
[...]London’s contacts came after Boris Johnson, foreign secretary, published a treatise at the weekend proposing Britain make no payments to Brussels to access the EU’s common market after a transition period. The calls from UK officials have sought to reassure EU capitals Mrs May has not been knocked off course by Mr Johnson.
[...]The EU’s opening position claims the UK has liabilities of up to €100bn, which would net out at €60bn when British receipts are stripped out. A €20bn net offer would allow the EU to avoid reopening its long-term budget plan prematurely, and would cover unpaid projects Britain signed off before its 2019 exit. It would not, however, cover long-term liabilities or spending promises made during the transition period. [...]
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