UK proposals will aim for legal clarity, certainty post-Brexit

The UK will seek a new legal arrangement with the European Union to ensure disputes  -- over such things as consumer rights, business conflicts, divorce and child custody -- are resolved with clarity and certainty once the country withdraws from the bloc.

That is expected in March 2019.

The government is expected to publish proposals on Tuesday that set out a new framework. It aims to build on current EU-wide structures and continue collaboration, the Department for Exiting the European Union in London said in a statement.

"Close cooperation in this area isn't just in the interest of the UK citizens living in the EU, it's in the interest of the 3.2 million EU citizens living here in Britain," a UK government source said. "We hope that we will be able to work with the Commission to agree a reasoned approach that works for families here in Britain and across the European Union."

The European Commission is the EU's executive arm.

The UK is currently part of the EU's civil judicial system. That means, among other things, that families living in different parts of the Union have a clear set of rules to resolve cross-border disputes. 

Earlier on Monday the UK released two policy papers setting out negotiating starting points in the Brexit negotiations. They covered the areas of goods on the market -- where it wants "the freest and most frictionless trade possible in goods and services" -- and the confidentiality of documents. 

In position papers released last week, the UK said it would not seek a 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic, which after Brexit will be the only UK/EU land frontier. 

That would mean no passport controls or immigration checks. 

It separately raised the idea of a "temporary customs union" with the EU after leaving the bloc.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit coordinator, said on Twitter that those trade proposals were "a fantasy".

He also argued that citizens' rights and the so-called divorce bill – the amount Britain is expected to pay towards EU commitments already made, among other things – needed to be settled first. 

In total the UK is expected to announce five new position papers this week.

The third round of Brexit talks are expected to begin next week.  

(Alistair Holloway, alistair.holloway@wort.lu, +352 49 93 739)