Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of their liability to continue to contribute towards the pensions of retired EU officials after Brexit; and what is their estimate of the cost of any such liability.

This question was answered on 12th December 2017
Following on from the Prime Minister’s speech in Florence, the Joint report on progress during phase 1 of negotiations under Article 50 TEU on the UK’s orderly withdrawal from the EU lays down the methodology agreed for calculating the financial settlement.

The UK will contribute its share of the financing of the Union’s liabilities incurred before 31 December 2020, including pensions, as they fall due.

The current liability associated with pensions is given in the Annual Accounts of the European Union 2016. As the Joint Report states, this liability has a long time-span and the forecast of its net present value depends on a number of assumptions and is sensitive to, in particular, the real discount rate, which has a historically low value at the time of drafting of the report.