Although I can see from your comments that your grasp of the Brexit issues is a lot better than that of most Freepers, to speak of the payment in the deal as ‘fines’ is way off the mark. The initial negotiated settlement in the severance deal is simply the adjustment of net liabilities which happens when any business partnership is dissolved. It includes things like contributions to continuing EU programmes to which the UK was already contracted for the rest of the current budge cycle, pension contributions contracted to British EU staff etc. The additional payments during the ‘transition’ period are for continued access to EU services during that period.
I know the 40 bn was not necessarily fines, but that is what it amounts to in some sense. It was shorthand rather than explaining everything you did. I still believe they have quite a bit of leverage in this deal that they have not used. The 40 bn payment for one thing and the fact that the Country of Ireland does not want a ‘hard border’ with Northern Ireland for another.
There are things that they have to negotiate with and I don’t think Theresa May has done a good job in these negotiations. First off, she should have had a list of ‘must haves’ from her Torrie/DUP members that needed to be in the deal before ever going to negotiate. She must have known that the ‘backstop’ part of the deal with Northern Ireland would be a non starter for DUP.