LONDON - The UK will have to pay a bill of about £50 billion ($62 billion) when it leaves the European Union, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned as British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger the formal start of the exit process.
While there is no desire to punish Britain for leaving the bloc, the EU must deter other countries from following, the head of the EU’s executive arm told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Friday.
"We have to calculate scientifically what the British commitments were and then the bill has to be paid," he said. Asked if the bill will be £50 billion, which is about €58 billion, Mr Juncker replied: "It’s around that."
Mrs May plans to launch Britain on a two-year process of negotiations to quit the EU on March 29, by triggering Article 50 of the bloc’s Lisbon Treaty. The size of Britain’s exit bill will be among the first -- and most contentious -- topics for discussion, with British ministers indicating they do not believe the UK is liable for such a large sum.
Mr Juncker’s statement is the clearest indication from the commission of the size of the bill, and is in line with an estimate cited by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern last month.
The EU’s remaining 27 member states are preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding Treaty of Rome, without Britain, on Saturday. Asked if May’s absence from the gathering would be an elephant in the room, Mr Juncker responded: "She is not an elephant," adding that he likes her "as a person".
"We are not in a hostile mood when it comes to Brexit because I do think, and I do want, and I do wish to have with Britain in the next decades a friendly relationship," he said. "But I don’t want others to take the same avenue because let’s suppose for one second that others would leave -- two, three, four, five -- that would be the end."
The clash between the UK and the EU over the size of Britain’s exit bill -- covering liabilities such as pensions for EU officials, infrastructure projects, and the bailout of Ireland -- is shaping up to be one of the first major obstacles in the talks.
The UK government has floated the idea that Britain could leave the bloc without paying anything at all and Liam Fox, one of Mrs May’s most senior ministers, described the notion of a £60-billion exit charge as "absurd". Her aides have said any payment will have to be negotiated.
"Britain has to know, and I suppose that the government does know it: they have to honour the commitments and the former commitments," Mr Juncker said. While Brexit was "a failure and a tragedy", the EU would be "firm" and not "naive" in the negotiations, he added.
An early deal to guarantee the rights of Europeans living in Britain, and British nationals in the EU, is also a key priority for Mr Juncker. "This is not about bargaining, this is about respecting human dignity," he said.
Mrs May has also promised to work for an agreement as soon as possible to end the uncertainty of millions of EU nationals living in the UK who fear they will be forced to leave the country after Brexit.