Sufficient progress has not been achieved to move on to the next phase of Brexit negotiations, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said today in an address to the European Parliament.
"Until now, we have not made enough progress to start the second phase of negotiations with full confidence, first of all on what would be a possible transition period... then negotiations on the framework of our future relations," said Barnije.
The EU demands that sufficient progress be made on three key topics defined at the beginning of the negotiations - the fate of citizens directly affected by Brexit, the issue of Ireland, and the amount of the bill that Britain should pay for leaving the EU.
Barnier stated before the MEPs that there are "serious differences" in the talks, especially on the issue of settling accounts with Britain.
"We will not accept that 27 countries pay what was agreed upon when there were 28 of us. The taxpayers of the twenty-seven countries should not pay the consequences of a decision they did not make," Barnije said.
He also expressed concern about certain discriminatory measures of the British administration towards citizens of other EU countries living on British territory.
As part of the negotiations, the issue of family reunification and guarantees of social contributions earned in Great Britain still need to be clarified, Barnije said.
In addition, the EU is firm about guaranteeing citizens' rights and wants to preserve the authority of the EU Court of Justice, which London absolutely rejects.
The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, present in the parliament, also said that not enough progress had been made in the negotiations.
"We have to first agree on the terms of the divorce and then we will see if we can meet again, with some tenderness," Junker said.
MEPs will vote today on a resolution in which they express their dissatisfaction with the slow progress of negotiations.
The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, lamented the lack of unity within Britain's negotiating team. The leader of the largest bloc of parties in the European Parliament, the head of the European People's Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, said the same.
"Don't put your party first, put your country first," Weber told British Prime Minister Theresa May directly.
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