EU wanted up to 鈧�75bn in Brexit divorce bill - sources
The UK knocked billions off its EU leaving bill, with one source comparing the deal to a famous World War Two victory.
Saturday 9 December 2017 06:31, UK
Britain will pay a Brexit "divorce bill" substantially lower than the sum demanded by the European Union, Sky News can reveal.
EU negotiators were seeking €60bn to €75bn euros (£53bn-£66bn), but were bargained down by the UK to £35bn-£39bn.
And around £8bn of the total settlement, revealed for the first time when the deal was announced, is pension liabilities for retiring EU officials which will be paid out over many years.
Senior Whitehall sources have hailed the deal clinched over breakfast in Brussels as a win for Theresa May, after officials rated the chances of a deal at only 50-50 on Thursday evening.
One source compared the Brexit deal, which now paves the way for trade talks, to the Allied victory in North Africa in World War II, declaring: "This is El Alamein... it's the end of the beginning."
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In another victory, Sky News understands that the DUP had wanted more than 30 amendments to the draft they saw on Monday - but eventually accepted eight.
During the marathon negotiations on Thursday night, DUP leader Arlene Foster spoke to the PM on the phone twice - first at 9pm and then again at 11pm - and was won round in the second phone call.
A senior Whitehall source said: "They needed lots of hand-holding and assurances that we wouldn't sell them out by putting the border in the Irish Sea."
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The Downing Street staff Christmas party, with drinks and karaoke, was "going on around the Prime Minister" as she managed to achieve the breakthrough. Mrs May did not attend but instead headed for her constituency home in the village of Sonning, near Maidenhead, Berkshire.
She managed to get a couple of hours sleep there, before she was picked up at 3.45am for an RAF flight to Brussels to seal the agreement.
In a third victory for the UK, the EU had wanted Britain's courts to accept a voluntary role for the European Court of Justice for 15 years.
"We got them down to eight," a source told Sky News.