UK puts Brexit divorce bill at €43.8B

Britain estimates its total Brexit divorce bill is €43.8 billion — lower than the European Commission’s own figure.

Although it fully left the European Union at the start of 2021, the U.K. remains liable for multi-year commitments to the bloc’s budget stretching beyond its membership, including the pension costs of EU officials and MEPs.

The latest estimate from the British Treasury today, working out at £37.3 billion, falls below the €47.5 billion (or £40.8 billion) figure contained in the EU’s own annual accounts for 2020.

Confirming the figures in a written parliamentary statement published Thursday, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said: “HM Treasury estimate that the current value of the financial settlement is £37.3bn. This remains within the Government’s previously published reasonable central range, adjusted to take into account the UK’s 31 January 2020 exit date.”

The Treasury had previously given a range for its EU liabilities of between €40 billion and €45 billion, or roughly £35 billion and £39 billion.

A document published alongside the statement shows that Britain’s bill includes €7.8 billion in EU contributions racked up after it delayed Brexit from the original March 2019 date, plus €11.2 billion covering the one-year, post-Brexit transition period that followed Britain’s formal exit in 2020.

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