Britain must reach a deal on what it owes the European Union before talks can start on a post-Brexit trade deal, the EU's negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday. His comments were the first major reaction from Brussels since Britain announced on Monday that Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger the two-year divorce process on March 29. "When a country leaves the union there is no punishment, there is no price to pay to leave.
But we must settle the accounts, no more, no less," Barnier, a former European Commissioner and French minister, said in Brussels. "We will not ask the British to pay a single euro for something they have not agreed to as a member," he told an EU regional institution. Barnier said Britain had outstanding obligations for regional funding, development funds and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker's investment plan, which together total obligations for the whole EU of more than 600 billion euros."