European Union governments want the power to suspend any future agreement made with the UK after the negotiation of a new free trade deal as part of its “toolbox” of punitive measures against Britain after Brexit.

The move could give Brussels the power to prevent British airlines landing in EU airports on their way to non-EU destinations or restrict cabotage rights, if deals on those issues are struck after the end of this year and if Britain ignores rulings by a dispute panel overseeing the future partnership.

The push is designed to stiffen the European Commission's resolve in the face of British resistance to any form of dispute resolution that cuts across different sectors. The British government is understood to prefer a series of sector-specific deals rather than an umbrella structure covering all deals and allowing for cross-sectoral retaliation.

EU member states widened the scope of the draft system for dispute resolution to include the future supplementary deals, as well as the powers to impose fines and freeze parts of the association agreement that Brussels wants to form the basis of the future trading agreement.

The commission has already said it will reserve the right to issue fines and suspend parts of the overarching legal framework for the future relationship if a UK-EU dispute escalates in an earlier draft of the EU negotiating mandate for trade talks.

“The other Party would be entitled to request financial compensation or take proportionate and temporary measures, including suspension of its obligations within the scope of the envisaged partnership as well as any supplementing agreements,” a leaked draft of the revised negotiating mandate said.

“The negotiations will be conducted in a way that ensures parallelism among the various sectoral tracks of the negotiation,” the new draft of the mandate, revised after feedback from member states, said later.

The deadline to agree a new partnership by the end of the year means the European Commission is focusing on a number of key areas to agree with Britain.

Officials believe this agreement will have to be built on with supplementary agreements over time and after the end 2020 deadline. While airline and freight connectivity is part of the EU’s negotiating strategy for this year, the goal is a bare bones agreement, which would need to be fleshed out later.

EU diplomatic sources said that areas that could be “plugged in” to the association agreement would include rules allowing UK airlines to land in EU airports before travelling onto another non-EU destination.

Brexit meant the loss of cabotage rights to UK transport companies, meaning they cannot deliver freight between or inside EU member states but only from the UK to a single EU member states and back.

EU governments moved to toughen demands over fisheries and the level playing field originally set out by the European Commission, which will lead negotiations for the EU.

France appears to have suffered a setback in its bid to demand “dynamic alignment” on all EU standards involving state aid, tax, the environment and social standards in return for the trade deal.

Dynamic alignment would mean UK law would change to mirror EU standards over time, despite Britain having no say in the drafting of the new rules.

Most member states agree with France that the commission should ask for tougher safeguards to prevent Britain gaining an unfair competitive advantage over the bloc by undercutting EU standards after Brexit.

Rather than demand total alignment, the current draft reads, “these commitments should prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages over time to ensure a sustainable and long lasting relationship.”

Some governments fear that failure to future-proof the new trade deal against regulatory changes in tax, the environment and social standards would not protect their businesses and mean the free trade deal would have to be renegotiated in the future.

But they also recognise that dynamic alignment is politically explosive in Britain and have told the commission to investigate “mechanisms” that could allow UK standards to be updated to stay in date with those in the EU.

Boris Johnson has ruled out alignment on standards as part of the new trade deal, arguing countries such as Canada do not have to adhere to such stringent demands in their agreements with the EU. Brussels argues that the UK is far more enmeshed with the EU’s economy than Canada and so the level playing field guarantees are justified.

The negotiating mandate will be subject to further amendments before being finalised at a meeting of EU Europe ministers on February 25.