€100bn Brexit bill is 'legally impossible' to enforce, European Commission's own lawyers admit

John Springford, director of research, working on economic issues, at the Centre for European Reform in London, said the member-states were undermining the Commission's attempts to stick to a “principles-based” approach. “The Commission is trying to make the Brexit bill legally coherent so that, if negotiations fail, it has a defensible case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague,” he said.

“The Commission is defending a principles-based approach to the UK’s Brexit bill. It thinks that the UK does not legally have to pay for spending decisions made after it has left the EU – only those made when it was a member.”