May wants something in return as Brexit money offer set to rise

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Theresa May is ready to put more money on the table
to settle the Brexit divorce bill — but the Brits are plugging away at get-ting the European side to give her something in return.
“We’re headed in the right direction and what matters now is
that the UK and EU take a step forward together,” James Slack, May’s spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday in a sign that any improved offer on the bill must be matched with a pledge to start talking about trade.
Members of her cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee met to thrash out a strategy that would be acceptable to both the pro- and anti-European factions of her senior team. Specific figures and scenarios are subject to
negotiation, he said in response
to reports that U.K. will up offer to EU to 40 billion pounds — 45 billion euros or $53 billion.
Moreover, the EU isn’t demanding numbers at this stage but rather a clear idea from the U.K. of where it thinks it’s on the hook for liabilities accrued during membership.
The government does not agree to give the European Court of Justice a role guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit, Slack said, a explicit denial of a report on Tuesday by ITV’s Robert Peston. The role of the ECJ will end after the two-year transition that the UK hopes will follow on March 29, 2019 — when the country will formally leave.
May, who will meet some EU leaders on Friday, is seeking to break an impasse in negotiations ahead of a key summit in mid-December. With just 16 months to go until Britain leaves the bloc, talks are deadlocked mainly because of the financial settlement, and discussions of future trading terms can’t even begin until the EU side is happy with Britain’s offer on the bill.
The EU is pushing for Britain to pay at least 60 billion euros to cover budgetary commitments and future liabilities such as pensions for EU civil servants. In September, May said she will make 20 billion euros of budget payments after Brexit and has since said they are going through EU
demands line by line. On the bill,
the choreography is going to be key.
The Financial Times reported that the government won’t put the offer to Brussels until December 8, well after the deadline set by European officials, and just before the
crunch summit on December 14-15. That’s cutting it close as the conclusions of such summits are usually drawn up in advance: EU ambassadors are due to draft the statements on December 6.
But there’s a session of sherpas – the representatives of EU leaders – on December 11 and the UK may be aiming to land its offer in time for this meeting. Brexit Secretary David Davis told an audience of mostly German businessmen that “we will have pretty much continuous negotiations” between now and the summit.
That would fit the UK’s long-held strategy of seeking to interact with leaders rather than the Commission. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier pushed back against tying the bill to trade in a meeting with EU ministers in Brussels, according to an EU official with knowledge of
the meeting.
Just as progress on the bill appears within reach, the issue of the Irish border has come back to the fore after some on the UK side had considered it parked until the next stage of talks. Barnier took a tough line in a speech, saying it was up to “those who wanted Brexit” to find a way
of avoiding the UK’s new border
with the EU becoming a hard border dividing the island.
And even once the hurdles of Ireland, the bill, and citizens’ rights are passed, the trade talks won’t be easy, Barnier warned. If Britain wants a deep and broad trade deal, it needs to stick to European standards rather than embracing American ones instead. “There will be no ambitious partnership without common ground in fair competition, state aid, tax dumping, food safety, social and environmental standards,” Barnier said. “It is not only about rules or laws. It is about societal choices — for health, food standards, our environment and financial stability.”