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Update: UK rejects EU's proposal on Ireland in Brexit withdrawal draft

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Update: UK rejects EU's proposal on Ireland in Brexit withdrawal draft

The European Commission published a draft agreement on the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU under which Northern Ireland would remain within the bloc's customs union, immediately raising temperatures in Brexit negotiations as the British prime minister called the proposal unacceptable.

In the draft, presented as the two sides aim to negotiate the terms of their future trading relationship as well as a transition period after Brexit in March 2019, the Commission calls for Britain to agree to a "common regulatory area ... without internal borders" including both EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the proposal simply formalized a "divorce deal" agreed in December 2017, under which Brussels and the U.K. agreed that there would be a "full alignment" between the northern and southern parts of the island of Ireland. Being part of a customs union means sharing a common external tariff.

"I'm not trying to provoke. I'm not trying to create any shock waves," Barnier told a news conference.

But Prime Minister Theresa May, whose fragile majority depends on a pro-U.K. Northern Irish party, rejected the idea.

"The draft legal text the Commission has published would, if implemented, undermine the U.K. common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the U.K. by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no U.K. prime minister could ever agree to it," May told the parliament in Westminster.

The common regulatory area is a fallback provision and allows Britain to come up with alternatives through a trade deal between the two sides or through other measures.

"We are committed to ensuring that we see no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," May said.

The draft agreement also has no explicit clause for the transition period to extend after December 2020. The U.K. wants this to last as long as necessary to implement post-Brexit processes and systems.

May is facing a rebellion from her own Conservative Party lawmakers after she "categorically" ruled out remaining in the EU's customs union after Brexit. She is due to give a major speech laying out her government's negotiating position, clinched after difficult talks with different factions of her own party, on March. 2.

In a significant concession, the U.K. government said Feb. 28 that EU citizens arriving in the country during the Brexit implementation period would have the same rights to settle as they do today.