Resetting the relationship: Where will EU-UK talks lead?

The UK’s new Minister for European Union Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds has met Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič at the European Commission in Brussels. The meeting was billed by the British government as no more than aiming “to set the ground for further discussions between the UK and EU as the UK seeks to reset its relationship with the bloc and build closer cooperation on shared issues”.  

The two men had already spoken on the phone before Nick Thomas-Symonds’ first visit to Brussels as a minister a week earlier, when he only met the UK Ambassador to the EU Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby and addressed Embassy staff. He was appointed by the new British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, “to lead future UK discussions with the EU and to reset the UK-EU relationship”.

The new minister has described his mandate in vague but potentially ambitious terms as “resetting the relationship with the European Union, to strengthen ties, reinforce our security and tackle barriers to trade”. That linking of security cooperation with improving the trading relationship hints at both how progress in repairing some of the damage in relations caused by Brexit might be achieved but also at how fraught the process could become.

An agreement on a security partnership could come quite quickly, with progress possible at this week’s meeting of the European Political Community, hosted by the United Kingdom. Thomas-Symonds and Šefčovič sounded if they were on the same page in their pre-meeting remarks, with minister declaring that “with war in Europe, and shared global challenges, in areas such as climate change and illegal migration, a strong UK - EU alliance is vital”.

The Commission Vice-President reciprocated by saying that “the EU and the UK are close neighbours, partners, and allies, sharing values as well as challenges that are global in nature”. But he said they could strengthen their cooperation “while making the most of our existing agreements that form the cornerstone of our partnership”.

That could be interpreted as meaning that security cooperation is a no-brainer, just so long as it didn’t involve reopening the trade and cooperation agreement that was finally agreed with the UK at the end of the torturous Brexit process. Nick Thomas-Symonds was fond in opposition of repeating the Labour party’s ‘red lines’ with the EU: no return to the single market, to the customs union or to freedom of movement of people. He will swiftly find out that the EU has red lines if its own.

The EU will not want any security pact bypassing the trade agreement in areas such as the Green Deal, food security and arms production. An improved trade deal, that eliminates some of the bureaucratic obstacles now faced by businesses trying to trade across the English Channel, will depend on what the new UK government is willing to concede without crossing its red lines.

It’s notable that those red lines do not rule out any role for the Court of Justice of the European Union. Labour won the UK election saying very little about the EU but it did talk of seeking to ease controls on trade in plants, animals and foodstuffs. To do that, the new government will have to accept that it will have to enforce the relevant EU rules in the UK -or at least that the UK’s own rules will remain virtually indistinguishable from those of the EU. Such ‘dynamic alignment’ will almost inevitably lead sooner or later to the European Court being asked to rule on whether the British are staying in line.

Trade talks will have to wait until the next College of Commissioners takes office. Inevitability there will have to be some movement from both sides. We have already had a demonstration of the sensitivities involved when the Commission was spooked by the possibility that the UK might agree youth mobility schemes with favoured EU member states, allowing young people to cross the Channel to work and live for a limited period on a reciprocal basis.

The Commission rushed out its own proposal, which would include all member states. The Conservative government gleefully rejected the idea out of hand. Labour repeated its ‘no freedom of movement’ mantra but of course such a scheme is well short of full freedom of movement of people and so might in time be acceptable after all.

After the meeting Maroš Šefčovič and Nick Thomas-Symonds posted pleasantries on social media, talking of “a constructive meeting” and looking forward “to many more meetings to come”. Perhaps the most significant in the near future -both in practical and symbolic terms- will come soon after the summer break, when the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is expected to attend an EU Foreign Affairs Council.

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