Brussels seeking unprecedented powers to punish Britain during Brexit transition

THERESA May has been told she must allow Brussels to slap tariffs on UK goods, ground flights and suspend single market access during the Brexit transition period.

The proposals would give the EU unprecedented legal powers — without needing to go through European courts — to punish Britain if it breaks the terms of the deal.

Eurocrats also fear Britain could test limits of EU law in relation to immigration — knowing the European Court of Justice would not reach a verdict on any cases until after the transition is over.

The terms heap pressure on the PM and her ministers, who face calls to stand up to Brussels’ demands.

The four-page European Commission dossier, obtained by The Sun, also shows Britain is set to be denied a veto on fishing quotas during a transition period — sparking fears our trawler fleet could be wiped out.

Eurocrats are insisting Britain stays in the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which has been blamed for decimating our coastal communities.

The revelations are contained in legal plans for the period immediately after our exit in March 2019, during which we’ll continue to accept EU law.

The plans show how the EU only wants to “consult” Britain on fishing opportunities in that period

It will heap further pressure on Theresa May and her ministers who are already facing calls to stand up to Brussels’ demands.

Alan Hastings, from the campaign group Fishing For Leave, fumed: “Having no veto means the transition will present an existential threat to what is left of the British fishing industry and coastal communities.

“The EU will have little charity as the UK will be locked into legal purgatory where EU could cull the UK fleet and claim ‘surplus’ fish the UK no longer has the capacity to catch.

“The government and MPs must refuse the transition terms or they will consign another British industry to museum and memory.

“That Theresa May has known this all along means she, and her Remain-minded officials, are fully complicit in the embryonic stages of a second betrayal and sell-out of Britain’s fishing industry.”

The bombshell comes after member states warned they will start netting fish at a younger age if Britain tries to take back control of its 200-mile sea territory.

EU member states meet to thrash out annual fishing quotas for most species in the Atlantic and North Sea every December.

That means the UK will get a say on the levels for 2019, but not for the whole of 2020 or during any further extension of the transition.

The revelations were accompanied in the text by a punishment mechanism — dubbed the “nuclear option” — to boot the UK out of parts of the single market if it breaks the terms of the deal.

Eurocrats want to be able to slap tariffs on UK goods or strip it of access to key areas like financial services and aviation in retaliation for breaches.

They are particularly concerned Britain could test the limits of EU law in relation to immigration knowing the European Court of Justice would not reach a verdict on any cases until after the transition is over.