and legal status quo in a transition period after it leaves the EU.

Mr Barnier said Britain should expect no tailor-made terms on trade in its future relationship.

Suggesting a transition should run for 21 months from Brexit on 30 March 2019 until the current EU budget expires at the end of 2020, Mr Barnier said Britain would "certainly" remain subject to EU laws and courts during that transition.

"During this period, the EU legal framework including on jurisdiction would continue to apply to Britain," Mr Barnier said in an interview published in Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper.

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"We don't have time to invent a new model. So for a short time after the formal exit from the EU the economic status quo would continue to apply, which besidesthe internal market also includes the customs union and collective political decisions."

In a version of the interview in Belgium's L'Echo, he said of the transition: "The only difference is that the British would no longer take part in decisions on European legislation."

British Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed a transition of around two years to give time to put a new free trade pact in place, although she faces opposition in London from some Brexit supporters who want a clean, quick break.

Mr Barnier noted that Mrs May had rejected the option of staying in the EU single market long-term - the "Norwegian model" as he called it, referring to Norway's membership of the EU internal market, accepting all its rules and costs without having a say.

"So we must