Exit talks, then trade talks EU tells UK

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told Britain that Brexit terms must be resolved before trade could be considered.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted, in a speech to the European Parliament on April 5, that the U.K. must first work out its exit from the EU; before it can consider negotiating its trade status.

“To succeed, we need, on the contrary, to devote the first phase of negotiations exclusively to reaching an agreement on the principles of the exit,” Barnier told Parliament.

“It is an essential condition to maximize our chances to reach an agreement together within two years, which is very short.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said parallel negotiations would be impossible. “Negotiations about the future will not take place until the questions arising from the past have been settled and past,” he said.

Barnier made it clear that he did not want to punish any nation for leaving the EU, but insisted that any exiting state meets all the fiscal responsibilities it assumed while an EU member.

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Parliamentary group leader, Nigel Farage, objected strongly to this, and said so in somewhat offensive terms.

“You have shown yourselves with this demands to be vindictive, to be nasty, all I can say is thank goodness we’re leaving,” he said. “You’re behaving like the Mafia, you think we’re a hostage, we’re not, we’re free to go, we’re free to go.”

Lafarge was rebuked by Parliament President Antonio Tajani, and walked back his most objectionable language.

While Barnier made it clear that he did not want to punish the U.K., Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group leader Gianni Pittella made it clear that the U.K. would not gain anything by leaving, saying, “A country leaving the European Union will never be able to benefit from seceding compared to when it was a member.”

At the end of the session Parliament voted to follow the draft negotiation guidelines penned by its own negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt.

Parliament rejected any mention of Gibraltar, which is part of the U.K. but wants a relationship with the EU.