EU taxpayers should not be made to pay for Brexit, Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs yesterday, as he again claimed there had not yet been sufficient progress in the exit talks to embark on discussions about any future relationship between the UK and EU.

In a short speech to open the European Parliament’s plenary debate on the UK’s decision to leave the bloc, the European Commission president repeated his intention to stick to the negotiating lines drawn up on key divorce issues.

Juncker congratulated French President Emmanuel Macron for his “bold and European” speech in Paris last month about the future of the EU and contrasted it with Theresa May’s speech in Florence on “separation”.

“President Macron gave a very bold and a very European speech that I would like to congratulate and thank him for once again,” he said.

“Prime Minister May’s speech, on the other hand, was about separation. In Florence, she struck an optimistic tone on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the Union.

“But when it comes to Brexit, we still cannot talk about the future with any real clarity. This is because ... we first need to agree on the terms of the divorce and then we see if we can half-lovingly find each other again.”

He added: “The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence was conciliatory. But speeches are not negotiating positions. And as Michel Barnier, the commission’s excellent chief negotiator, said last week: work still remains to be done. We have not yet made the sufficient progress needed.

“The negotiators made good progress on citizens’ rights but the indispensable role of the European Court of Justice in guaranteeing those rights still needs to be agreed.

“I am pleased that Prime Minister May and her team recognise that the UK has financial obligations which it must respect. The devil will be, as always, in the detail. But the tax- payers of the EU27 should not pay for the British decision.”

Juncker went on to say that in terms of Ireland, only solutions that fully respect EU law and the Good Friday Agreement could be discussed.

EU leaders are due to deliver their verdict at the European Council meeting later this month on whether there has been sufficient progress in the talks to move on to phase two, the UK’s future trading relationship with the EU27.

Barnier, sitting beside Juncker, echoed the president’s comments, adding that discussions will be needed “on what the new period of transition would be.”

Later, a European Parliament resolution calling on EU leaders to postpone their assessment of whether the Brexit talks have made sufficient progress to move to the next phase was carried by a large majority.

MEPs voted by 557 to 92 (with 29 abstentions) in favor of the resolution drawn up by the five major political groups in the Parliament.

The resolution says adequate progress has not yet been made on major divorce issues, including the rights of EU citizens in the UK, post-Brexit (and vice versa), the Northern Irish border and the so-called Brexit Bill.

“Unless there is a major breakthrough” in the fifth round of talks in Brussels next week, the resolution calls on EU leaders to postpone their assessment of progress in the talks during the European Council summit.

There is a growing sense of impatience in Europe over the lack of progress being made in the Brexit talks. During his State of the Union address to MEPs Juncker signalled the EU27 were ready to “move on”.

“We have to respect the will of the British people,” he said. “We are going to make progress. We will keep moving. We will move on because Brexit isn’t everything. It isn’t the future of Europe.”