UK Prime Minister Theresa May got a first taste of the high-wire act involved in European Union negotiations after her opening offer for a Brexit deal ran into immediate opposition from EU leaders who challenged her attempt to tie a free-trade deal to security cooperation.

In an early sign that two years of divorce negotiations will be as contentious and complicated as feared, Guy Verhofstadt - the European Parliament's point person on Brexit matters and someone who will have a say on the final outcome - complained that "security is far too important to start to bargain it against an economic agreement".

Bloomberg