European Union sources: United Kingdom to agree Brexit divorce bill before trade talks

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Formal Brexit negotiations will begin on Monday, the United Kingdom and European Union say. A source in May's Conservative Party said talks continued on Friday.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier and the UK's Brexit minister, David Davis, will meet in Brussels on Monday (19 June), kicking off negotiations likely to take nearly two years.

The Commission statement said: "The opening of negotiations at political level next week will focus on issues related to citizens' rights, the financial settlement, the Northern Irish border and other separation issues, as part of the sequenced approach to the talks".

"Both sides will also discuss the structure of the negotiations and the issues that need to be addressed over the coming months".

Among the main issues to be worked out on Monday is formal agreement on the future negotiating cycle: how many and how often negotiating sessions will be held, and how the two sides will report on their progress. We are clear this is what is set out in Article 50.

"We believe that the withdrawal process can not be concluded without the future relationship also being taken into account", the spokesman said.

Asked whether Davis had shifted his position, a British official referred to a statement released by Davis's ministry on Friday which repeated calls for the withdrawal terms and future relationship to be "agreed alongside each other".

More pressing is the issues of providing effective guarantees to some 5 million people — around 3 million European Union citizens living in Britain plus nearly 2 million Britons in Europe — who want to know what the future holds after Brexit.

"That has always been our first aim and that is what we will do", the spokesman said.

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Secretary Lorenzana also revealed that the Maute Terrorist Group has a lot of money to entice loyalists. Mindanao has already seen Islamist and communist insurgencies and other separatist movements.

Barnier this week acknowledged "sensitivity" in London at European Union suggestions that Britain might owe it some 60 billion euros in 2019 and said sorting out the issue soon would help a trade deal: "I would like to very quickly play down this question, and find concrete, pragmatic and just solutions", he said on Monday.

"There is no Brexit bill".

A senior Brussels official said the amount, which compares to London's annual net European Union payment of around 10 billion euros, would still be "peanuts" in terms of the overall economy and also that the final bill would be determined less by technical and legal arguments than by hard-headed political horse-trading.

"It is clear that the Government can no longer seek to silence opposition or sideline Parliament", said Sir Keir.

In the letter, obtained by the Financial Times, he urged ministers to make jobs and the economy their priority in negotiations.

Mr Hammond's comments are likely to be seen as reflecting a softer approach to Brexit than Mrs May, who has insisted that no deal would be better than a bad deal.

For Brussels, a concern with starting talks on such models would be that Brexit supporters might end up blocking them, raising the risk of time running out to get any deal: "Would you".

Speaking the day after he cancelled a speech at Mansion House on Thursday, and before he flies to Brussels for a key meeting on Thursday, Hammond said the UK's policy had already been set but added that negotiators would have to be "pragmatic".

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