Brussels slams UK's Brexit `renegotiation' attempt

The U.K.'s latest proposal to buy yet more time before a post-Brexit customs regime can be put in place is dead-on-arrival in Brussels, EU officials and diplomats say.

The plan is billed by London as an alternate "backstop" to prevent the re-creation of a hard border on the island of Ireland while it prepares a more permanent customs solution, but the EU sees it as requiring a whole new round of complex negotiations for a "bespoke" transition lasting beyond December 2020. That would amount to something Brussels is unwilling to do -- namely to reopen talks on the already agreed transition period under which the U.K. will remain subject to EU law.

Prime Minister Theresa May won the agreement of her Brexit war Cabinet for a time-limited post-Brexit customs arrangement to act as a stop-gap solution two weeks ago. Its rejection in Brussels -- even before her officials have formally presented it in the talks -- shows the two sides on a direct collision course just one month before a European Council summit that has been set up as a key milestone in the talks.