As the UK and the EU try to reset their relationship after the fracture caused by Brexit, barriers to progress have emerged. The effort to get over these is worth making, because progress can benefit both sides.
The UK is no longer “Britain of the Brexit years,” Keir Starmer said recently. But he has still to clearly define how he sees the relationship with the EU evolving. A new report from the UK House of Commons foreign affairs committee finds that the UK lacks “ clear strategic priorities” on the issue, meaning the EU can dominate key areas of the negotiations.
The report welcomes the efforts to rebuild relations, which were formally kicked off at a summit last year, but it calls for greater clarity on what the UK wants in key areas such as defence, trade and economic security. Otherwise, MPs fear, the UK is “on a journey with no clear destination.” It also accuses the EU of changing the goalposts in key areas of the negotiations.
Here, the UK may have a point and whether a reset in relations is possible hinges in part on a power struggle in the EU between French-led protectionist instincts and more liberal trade leaning member states. A common defence pact between the UK and the EU should have been a basis to develop closer ties, but negotiations fell apart last November when Brussels demanded a ¤2 billion membership fee from the UK to join the SAFE (Security Assistance for Europe) programme.
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Other challenges also loom. The UK has embarked on a diplomatic offensive to avoid being locked out of the “buy European” clause of the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act, which stipulates that only EU- based companies can tender for procurement contracts as part of the bloc’s transition to a green industrial base.
There is still a willingness among some member states, particularly France, to punish the UK for leaving the EU. But the referendum was a decade ago and the geopolitical context has changed utterly over the intervening period. Europe faces an increasingly hostile Russia, while transatlantic ties have been ruptured and the economic threat from China looms large.
Rapprochement is not without risks for the EU. Reform holds a substantial lead in UK opinion polls and could lead the next government. It remains implacably opposed to the EU and Reform would almost certainly renege on any commitments made by Labour should it prevail in 2029.
But resignations and other developments in the Labour Party have presented Starmer with the opportunity to repair some of the damage from Brexit. The EU should try to meet it half way. It is in the interest of both sides – and of Ireland – for this to happen. But politics on both sides means success is far from guaranteed.
