UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will host the European Union chiefs on Monday for a landmark summit designed that will discuss trade, travel, and defence between Britain and EU, five years after Brexit.
This meeting is expected to deliver the first results from Starmer’s “reset” of the UK’s ties with its European neighbours following the tense relationship of the post-Brexit years.
Starmer will meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa at Lancaster House in London for the first bilateral summit since the UK formally left the EU.
According to UK Agencies, Monday’s UK-EU summit is the most crucial piece of the three-part jigsaw to unlock growth, after the recent deals with India and the US.
Downing Street announced Saturday the Labour leader would be striking a deal for a “strengthened, forward-looking partnership” with the 27 EU members. He is said to have privately promised the Ursula von der Leyen, that he would keep negotiations “in the room”, because the EU side had lost trust in the UK’s approach after the game-playing of the Boris Johnson era.
Starmer said it would be “good for our jobs, good for our bills and good for our borders”.
Three documents are expected to emerge from the talks. A new security and defence partnership, a partial easing of trade barriers, particularly on food exports, and a political declaration of shared geopolitical goals present as principal topics.
Another area under discussion is a youth mobility scheme, allowing under-30s to live and work across borders.
Starmer, who came to power in last July’s general elections ousting the Conservative Party, wants a deeper relationship with the EU than the one painfully negotiated by the Tories.
Britain already has intertwined defence ties with 23 EU countries in NATO, so the defence pact was always seen as the easiest deal on the table. Talks have reportedly stumbled over fishing, however.
Starmer has ruled out rejoining the customs union and single market, but has suggested the UK is ready for dynamic alignment with the EU on food and agricultural products.