The UK’s new Labour government must now work out the details of Keir Starmer’s “reset” of relations with the EU.
In Brussels and London, many are hoping that Keir Starmer’s newly-appointed UK government will succeed in repairing the UK’s relationship with the European Union.
The new British prime minister has wasted no time in laying the groundwork for his promised “reset”: the NATO and European Political Community (EPC) summits in July provided an opportunity for Keir Starmer to meet his EU counterparts.
His intention to repair the UK’s strained ties with the EU was best communicated in July by the publication of a selfie with the German and Spanish leaders, Olaf Scholz and Pedro Sánchez, during England’s meeting with Spain in the Euro 2024 football final in Berlin.
But while the relationship has changed in form, the substance of Keir Starmer’s plans to change the frameworks for EU-UK cooperation remains rather unclear.
During his election campaign, he pledged to renegotiate what he described as Boris Johnson’s “botched” Brexit deal, but he made it clear that he would not rejoin the EU’s single market and customs union, or restore free movement of people between the continent and the UK.
Measures to streamline trade relations and an ambitious security pact are now on the negotiating table.
“EU representatives were very quickly in touch with the new British prime minister,” says one EU diplomat. “And it’s not just about security and defence, we have a lot of issues on the table to discuss.”
Removing trade frictions
One of the first priorities for Keir Starmer’s government will be to ease some of the post-Brexit trade frictions that have weighed on British businesses.
He has pledged to negotiate a new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, also known as a veterinary deal, which would reduce checks and barriers to agricultural trade with the continent.
Since the UK officially left the bloc in December 2020, the EU has introduced stringent border controls on British agri-food imports, requiring extensive checks and a vet’s signature to ensure compliance with EU standards. The UK retaliated in January this year with similar checks on imports from the EU.
Industry estimates that checks on animal and plant imports cost businesses £3bn a year.
A new SPS agreement could therefore bring economic benefits to the agri-food sector on both sides of the Channel, by easing simmering discontent among European farmers while reducing the cost of products for consumers.
The EU executive is likely to demand that the UK fully aligns, now and in the future, with the single market’s agri-food regulations, known as “dynamic alignment”. If the UK government agrees, it could pave the way for closer cooperation in other areas.
“Labour has spoken very positively – not only in the veterinary field, but also for example in chemicals – about the benefits for domestic industry of aligning with EU rules,” Luigi Scazzieri, a senior researcher at the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.
Labour has also discussed a deal to ease red tape for artists touring the EU and the UK, as well as mutual recognition of workers’ professional qualifications.
Quid pro quo requirements
But for a new SPS deal to be agreed, the UK will have to fully comply with some border checks on goods imported from the EU required by the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as product labelling rules under the Windsor Framework Agreement.
Brussels will also likely demand a resolution of ongoing issues regarding the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, thousands of whom have struggled to maintain their rights after Brexit.
“The previous government has dodged and avoided some of these issues because they are difficult, and accepted the price of a stagnant relationship,” Joel Reland, a researcher at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, told Euronews. “If Labour wants to move the relationship forward with the EU, they need to address these issues.”
“The Commission will be reluctant to consider new forms of cooperation until existing obligations are settled,” the expert adds.
Facilitating youth mobility
Another demand high on Brussels’ list is a youth mobility agreement, which would make it easier for young Britons and Europeans to cross the UK-EU border to study, work and live.
The European Commission proposed opening negotiations on a youth mobility deal in April this year, but Labour repeatedly rejected the prospect during its election campaign, fearing it would be interpreted as a return to free movement, a sensitive issue for many of the British electorate.
Joel Reland believes that Labour now faces a dilemma: maintain its opposition to the plan, as it did during the campaign, or try to strike a watered-down deal that is acceptable to both the Commission and the sceptical British electorate.
A ‘privileged’ security partner
EU diplomats say that in a more geopolitically unstable world, and with the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House, a close security and defence relationship with the UK is essential.
“It is clear that the UK must be a privileged partnership for us in foreign and defence policy,” says an EU diplomat.
EU officials see scope for formalising a partnership with Keir Starmer’s government through an EU-UK security pact.
This article is originally published on fr.euronews.com
