Brexit today - as it happened: Guy Verhofstadt hopes to 'conclude' citizens rights issue in coming weeks after Theresa May meeting
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Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, has said he hopes the issue of citizens' rights after Brexit can be concluded in the coming weeks.
His comments came after a meeting with senior ministers and Theresa May in Downing Street on Tuesday, in which “useful” progress had been made.
Mr Verhofstadt also said the UK economy will benefit from sticking as closely as possible to EU rules after Brexit.
He told reporters outside Downing Street: “I think it's possible that in the coming days and weeks we make progress on this [citizens' rights] we can conclude.”
But he warned that the European Parliament will not accept any deal on citizens’ rights that involves discrimination against people who come to the UK during the transition period.
Earlier on Tuesday, the French economy minister Bruno Le Marie said there had to be a “good deal” with the UK, but the City of London and the financial sector would have to rely on an equivalence regime.
This is from the Press Association on Emmanuel Macron's economy minister saying France wants a "fair" Brexit deal for the UK.
Bruno Le Maire said there had to be a "good deal" with the UK, but insisted that financial services could not be covered by a free-trade agreement and instead would have to rely on an equivalence regime.
His comments came after an aide to the EU's chief Brexit negotiator warned Theresa May she could struggle to get a Brexit deal which includes the UK's lucrative financial sector.
In her Mansion House speech on Friday, the Prime Minister set out her plans for Britain and the EU to access each other's financial markets based on a commitment to maintaining the same "regulatory outcomes".
However, Stefaan De Rynck, a senior adviser to Michel Barnier, said that, since the global crash of 2008, the EU had increasingly moved away from a system of "mutual recognition" by member states of each others' rules to more centralised regulation.
Speaking at the London School of Economics on Monday, he said if there was a "market failure" it meant the EU authorities could step in to intervene - which would no longer apply to the UK if it was outside the EU.
Mr Le Maire said the particular circumstances of the financial services industry meant it could not be covered within the scope of a free-trade agreement and the "best solution" would be for equivalence, where both sides recognise each other's standards.
"We need a good deal. But once again we have to avoid any misunderstanding between the British people and the French people, between the UK and the EU," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Financial services cannot be in a free-trade agreement, for many reasons - for reasons of stability, for the sake of supervision because there are some very specific rules for financial services.
"So financial services cannot be in a free-trade agreement, but we have an alternative system which is called the equivalence regime."
Mr Le Maire, who was in London for a meeting with Chancellor Philip Hammond, said: "We want to keep a very strong, a very positive relationship with the UK, but the British people decided to leave the EU and we have to draw the consequences of that sovereign decision from the British people.
"But it does not mean that we want a hard Brexit; we want a fair Brexit which will be in the interest of both the UK and the EU."
The Prime Minister wants trade to be "as frictionless as possible" and "we don't want to see the introduction of any tariffs or quotas" after leaving the single market and customs union.
Mr Le Maire said: "Our objective for that new framework should be as little friction as possible between the UK and the EU and the lowest-possible tariffs for the UK, because we have to keep in mind that the UK is a very important trade partner for France and the EU."
On Monday Mr Hammond told MPs that a deal which did not include financial services would lack credibility.
The Chancellor, who is due to set out the Government's thinking in more detail in a keynote speech on Wednesday, said the EU would find it impossible to replicate the financial "eco-system" of the City of London if it was excluded.
"I don't think it is credible. I don't think it reflects the real world in which we live," he told the Commons European Scrutiny Committee.
"(Given) the scale of the UK-based financial services sector and the deep involvement it has in the operation of the real economy in the EU, I don't think it is in anybody's interest to sever that link in key areas."
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chief Brexit coordinator, has arrived at Downing Street for talks with Theresa May and other government officials, including the Brexit Secretary David Davis.
Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, is now speaking in Brussels after meeting with Michel Barnier in Brussels. She said she wants a "sensible Brexit" to solve the border issue in Northern Ireland.
Interesting tweet here from the Conservative MP Anna Soubry.
Ahead of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia visiting the UK tomorrow for meetings with senior government officials and Theresa May over a three-day visit, the country's foreign minister has said the planned protests are based on a misunderstanding of the war in Yemen.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visit is set to be marked by demonstrations against his country's role in the three-year civil war in the country.
But foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir insisted the conflict was "just" and protests should focus on the role of the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is the main player in a coalition supporting the Yemeni government against the Houthis in a war which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
Mr al-Jubeir told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the expected protests would not affect the crown prince's visit.
"This is part of your traditions, there are protests that take place in London all the time," he said.
"This is not going to affect the visit or the objective of the visit."
He added: "I believe that their positions are based on misunderstanding and not knowing.
"They criticise us for a war in Yemen that we did not want, that was imposed on us.
"They criticise us for a war in Yemen that is a just war, that is supported by international law.
"They criticise us for the casualties in Yemen when it was imposed on us by the Houthis.
"They should be demonstrating against the Houthis for taking nine-year-old boys into battle, they should be protesting against the Houthis for laying siege on towns and villages and starving people, for stealing humanitarian assistance."
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