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		</div><p>An apparent split has emerged in the European Union&#8217;s Brexit negotiating team over whether Britain can agree its &#8220;divorce&#8221; from Brussels and conduct trade talks at the same time.</p>
<p>The European Parliament&#8217;s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt suggested EU rules mean the UK can agree its withdrawal while negotiating its future relationship.</p>
<figure id="attachment_105443" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105443" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_0490.jpg"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_0490.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="325" class="size-full wp-image-105443" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-105443" class="wp-caption-text">Guy Verhofstadt</figcaption></figure>
<p>He highlighted a clause in Article 50 of the EU treaties, which states that the union and the UK can agree &#8220;arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt&#8217;s comments appeared to contradict the approach set out by European Commission chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, who has suggested a divorce deal must be reached before trade talks can begin.</p>
<p>They also appear at odds with Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas&#8217;s insistence last week that &#8220;if one wants to divorce but to remain friends on the basis of a new relationship, first one needs to agree on the terms of the orderly separation&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt&#8217;s reading of Article 50 is likely to cheer Theresa May and Brexit Secretary David Davis, who has said Mr Barnier&#8217;s &#8220;sequential&#8221; approach is &#8220;not practical&#8221;.</p>
<p>Answering questions following a speech at Chatham House in central London, Mr Verhofstadt said: &#8220;In the treaty, Article 50, we are saying a withdrawal can be agreed taking into consideration the future relationship.</p>
<p>&#8220;So you see it is a fantastic political text and it says it all &#8211; a withdrawal agreement in the light of the future relationship.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is literally in the treaty and that is what we need to apply.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt backed the timetable set out by Mr Barnier, who said the Prime Minister should aim to conclude talks by October 2018 to give the EU time to approve it.</p>
<p>But the former Belgian PM said he thought negotiations would not begin in earnest until May or June, despite Mrs May&#8217;s promise to trigger Article 50 by April to begin formal talks.</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt warned that any delay in ending the negotiation could see MEPs, who will need to approve any final deal, being influenced by European parliamentary elections scheduled for 2019.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need to start the consent procedure (in the European Parliament) in a quite sensible moment,&#8221; he said.<br />
&#8220;If it is a few months before the European elections, you know how politicians are sensitive &#8230; just before elections.</p>
<p>&#8220;So it will be absolutely key that parliament is taken on board from day one of the negotiations, otherwise it will be very difficult to have a green light at the end of the consent procedures.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt again warned the UK it will not be able to &#8220;cherry-pick&#8221; parts of EU membership it wants to keep while ditching those it does not want.</p>
<p>But he offered an olive branch to Britons who want to maintain some form of EU citizenship, saying he was preparing a resolution to put to MEPs once negotiations start to be &#8220;open and generous&#8221;.</p>
<p>Following previous suggestions that Britons could pay to keep EU citizenship, Mr Verhofstadt said: &#8220;I can tell you I receive every day tens of letters &#8230; (about) millions of citizens who are saying &#8216;don&#8217;t leave us alone. We feel still European citizens, and we want to continue our link to Europe because we are part of the same civilisation&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Verhofstadt added: &#8220;We are scrutinising, thinking, debating how we could achieve that.<br />
&#8220;(So) that individual UK citizens would think their links with Europe are not broken.&#8221;</p>
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