May’s proposal Border in North
a meeting between senior EU officials and the UK’s lead Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins.
“It was a detailed and forensic rebuttal,” added the source, who was briefed on the meeting on Wednesday. “It was made clear that none of the UK’s customs options will work. None of them.”
The demolition of the UK’s Brexit customs policy, set out by Mrs May in her Mansion House speech last month, came after five rounds of technical negotiations in Brussels.
Although British negotiators were fully aware of EU scepticism, the complete inflexibility of the European Commission and EU member states is understood to have left them shocked.
The blow follows the Government’s first defeat in the House of Lords over the EU Withdrawal Bill.
The peers voted in favour of an amendment that favours staying in the customs union – a move which would help keep the Border as soft as possible.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned this week that there would be “very little point in Brexit” if the UK was not free to set its own tariffs.
Brexiteers had ruled out any UK membership of the customs union, saying it would be a “betrayal” of Brexit.
At present, the only plan on the table is the EU’s “backstop” option, which would effectively keep Northern Ireland in the customs union if needed.
But the hardline stance taken in Europe means that the debate has been blown wide open.
Remaining in the customs union would help ensure frictionless trade, and in doing so would negate many of the issues around the Border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Brexiteers find themselves between a rock and a hard place after Mr Tusk said: “The UK’s decision on Brexit has caused the problem and the UK will have to help solve it.
“Without a solution, there will be no withdrawal agreement and no transition.”
Tánaiste Simon Coveney has warned a lack of significant progress on the Border question by the time European leaders gather in June will trigger “serious questions” about whether a withdrawal agreement can be reached by October.