Parliament lead unimpressed by Brexit progress

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit lead, has expressed concern about the pace of negotiations, which could potentially delay any agreement on research cooperation.

Verhofstadt, a Belgian MEP, met with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier following the third round of talks between EU and UK representatives last week. Briefing the Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs on 4 September, he implied that talks were unlikely to move onto the future relationship between the EU and the UK within the next few months.

Progress has been made on a number of citizens’ rights matters, including social security and healthcare, Verhofstadt said. But he said that there has been “no progress at all on the financial settlement” over outstanding UK commitments, indicating that this is the main obstacle to moving onto the second phase of talks.