EU nations debating Brexit concessions
Reports suggest that the EU is considering a Brexit deal which will allow Britain to remain in the single market for goods if the UK replicated all environmental, social, and customs rules in return.
The deal would be comparable to the relationship Jersey and other Channel Island Crown dependencies share with the EU and is of an ilk that EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has previously ruled out, according to The Times.
Such a deal would also allow Britain to opt out from the free movement of people.
Barnier has indicated that he believes granting Britain access to the single market would "undermine" it and allow for 'cherry picking' beneficial elements of EU membership.
However, an unnamed senior EU source told The Times: "If May came with the Jersey model there would be a serious discussion among leaders for the first time."
The Jersey model, which would largely avoid the need for new borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, would keep Britain even more closely linked to the EU, meaning that the country would have to adopt future environmental and social legislation introduced by Brussels.
But a deal of this kind would be unlikely to pass through parliament after Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chequers proposals were deemed to align the country to closely with the EU by pro-leave Conservative MPs.
Critics say the deal would limit Liam Fox's international trade department's power to negotiate trade deals.
The potential deal is set to be discussed at a special meeting of all 28 leaders in Salzburg next month.