EU budget deficit intractable problem for Brexit

London

BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May and her "Brexit" negotiating team need to embark on serious creative thinking to persuade the European Union (EU) to begin trade negotiations.

The basic stumbling block is money. The EU's spending commitments in the coming 12 months is already a whopping 158 billion euros (S$252.6 billion), up 41 per cent in the past decade, latest official EU figures show.

Brexiteer politicians contend that the EU's request for 60 billion euros, as a departure payment, is unreasonable; and that the reason for the demand is to discourage other member nations from leaving the union.

The real reason, however, is that the departure of the UK from the …