Brexit: Financial Settlement

Lord Wigley Excerpts
Monday 13th November 2017

(6 years, 6 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Bates Portrait Lord Bates
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The noble Lord is absolutely right in pointing to the fact that there are assets of the European Union. Those are highlighted in the consolidated report and account, the difficulty with which is that it shows assets of £162 billion, but liabilities of £234 billion. In agreeing what our share of the assets is, we also have to be fair and recognise that there may be some concomitant responsibility for some of the liabilities.

Lord Wigley Portrait Lord Wigley (PC)
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My Lords, further to the point made a moment ago about the date being written into the Bill, does that not mean that on that date in March 2019, if all is not agreed at that point, nothing is agreed, and we would leave without even any semblance of a security agreement?

Lord Bates Portrait Lord Bates
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That is a fact that should be borne in mind by all parties for the negotiation.