Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday accept an invitation to hold talks on defense cooperation with the EU, in the first such meeting between a British prime minister and the bloc’s 27 leaders since Brexit.
António Costa, the new president of the European Council, will extend a symbolic invitation to Starmer at a meeting in Downing Street, in a sign of improving relations between the two sides.
Costa’s meeting with Starmer came just 12 days after he took office in Brussels, in a sign that the former Portuguese prime minister wants to prioritize the bloc’s relationship with the UK.
On Thursday, he will discuss inviting Starmer to a dinner with EU leaders on February 3 at an informal meeting in Belgium on security issues. “The prime minister will accept the invitation,” a British official said.
Starmer will be the first UK prime minister to meet the group of 27 since Britain left the EU in 2020, although he has attended gatherings of the wider European Political Community like his predecessors. Conservative Party members Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
Costa and Starmer will also plan to host an EU-UK summit in the first half of 2025, which will be the focus of efforts to “reset” the post-Brexit relationship, including downgrading the barrier between the two sides.
However, officials in Brussels emphasized that it was too early to conduct detailed negotiations on reestablishing relations. The EU has postponed the adoption of a negotiating mandate for what it now calls the “youth experience plan”.
An EU official said Costa was expected to have an informal discussion on political developments, including in the Middle East.
“It is worth noting that, in the current geopolitical context, it would be time to focus on the fact that the EU and UK have common positions on many topics, such as Ukraine,” the person said.
The meeting took place in the context of the pro-European faction of the ruling British Labor Party becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the level of ambition to “reset” the EU-UK, especially in terms of improving trade relations and achieving The agreement allows people between 18 and 30 years old to live, work and study in each other’s country.
Starmer is expected to sign a new security cooperation agreement with the EU early in the new year. But he was particularly cautious about the trade and mobility elements of the reset, repeatedly ruling out a deal on youth mobility.
Meanwhile, voters in the UK and major EU countries are more open to strengthening the EU-UK relationship than politicians on both sides, especially after Donald Trump’s victory in the election. US presidential race, according to a new survey.
A poll published by the European Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday found that around 55% of Britons support a “closer” relationship with the EU, compared with 10% who want it to be more distant. .
There is also widespread support among major EU nations for rapprochement between the EU and the UK, with more than 40% of Germans, Poles, Spaniards and Italians in favor closer relationship. French respondents were more reluctant, with only 34% in favor.
The YouGov and Datapraxis poll based on 9,278 respondents across six countries also found that Britons prioritized relations with Brussels over Washington after Trump returned to the White House.
When asked whether the UK should prioritize relations with “our European neighbours” or with the US, 50% of respondents chose Europe and 17% chose the US, with the remainder expressing no preference. prioritize.
The EU is also extremely cautious in its approach to the reset, warning member states in internal documents that the bloc should stick to the “no cherry picking” mantra that underpinned the initial negotiations after 2017.
However, the research organization’s poll shows that respondents in EU countries are willing to accept the UK being granted “special access” to the EU single market to strengthen partnership relations. strategic cooperation.
ECFR chief Mark Leonard said the poll showed Brexit-era divisions were fading, adding: “Governments now need to catch up with public opinion and come up with an ambitious reset plan.”
