Brexit divorce lawyers eye up EU’s wine list
Britain is planning to claim a share of the EU’s 42,000-bottle cellar of wine, cognac and other spirits, its art collection and its €8.7bn property portfolio as the government gears up to haggle over Brexit with Brussels.
As in any divorce, untangling EU-UK financial affairs is expected to be one of the most difficult part of the negotiations. Any exit deal must settle complex liabilities including the UK share of guarantees on €60bn of Eurocrat pensions and almost €20bn of European Investment Bank loans.
As it seeks to minimise any financial hit, Britain is eyeing the other side of the EU’s balance sheet, which includes assets ranging from land and office space to dozens of space satellites, the European Parliament’s art collection, the wine and spirits stock — and Margaret Thatcher’s old Conservative party citadel in Westminster.
“Of course we will go for the assets,” said one British official involved in preparations.
The ratio for divvying up the value of assets with Britain is likely to be highly contentious. But on the basis that Britain makes around an eighth of net EU budget contributions, its claim would cover roughly 5,000 bottles of wine, 250 bottles of spirits, €2.25m worth of art from the European Parliament’s collection, and around €10m from the book value of the European Court of Justice building.
Much of the financial detail of the divorce deal will be handled by Michel Barnier, the former French foreign minister who officially takes up his post as the commission’s chief Brexit negotiator on Saturday, some 100 days after the EU referendum.
The EU’s consolidated accounts from 2015 show property and equipment of €8.7bn, valued at the price paid when the buildings were purchased, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s. Britain would be expected to press for a survey to find the current market value on the assets.
Among these assets are more than 1.6m square metres of office space in Brussels alone, covering the European Parliament’s main buildings, the new “Europa” summit building for European leaders, and some 60 Commission buildings. This includes the Berlaymont headquarters, which the commission leases but presents as an asset in accounts because it can exercise an option to buy the building from Belgium for €1 in 2031.
Most tantalising for Brexiters may be the potential to reclaim 32 Smith Square, the former home of Conservative Central Office and backdrop to three Thatcher election victories. Bought for £26m and renovated in 2010, the Westminster property was rebranded “Europe House” and serves as a base for the commission and European Parliament in Britain.
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader who as an MEP still has use of an office in the building, said Britain should take back the landmark. “I think they should make it a monument to Mrs Thatcher and to Brexit, Mr Farage said. “They should turn it into a museum.”
Along with extensive properties in Luxembourg and Strasbourg, the EU maintains a network of agencies, delegations and offices around Europe, with prized buildings such as its Paris representation on Boulevard Saint-Germain.
As the EU has expanded its presence around the world, it has built a network of more than 300 properties in 138 countries. A fifth are owned by the bloc, with EU properties as far afield as Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.