EU’s Sefcovic and UK’s Thomas-Symonds have ‘productive’ talks on closer ties
Sir Keir Starmer will host the EU’s leaders for a summit in May as part of his effort to ‘reset’ relations with Brussels after Brexit.
The UK and European Union have discussed “concrete ways” to improve ties as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s drive to “reset” relations with Brussels.
Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and the EU’s trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic met in Brussels in the latest stage of the process to forge closer ties.
Mr Thomas-Symonds, the minister responsible for leading efforts to restore relations with the EU after the strains of the Brexit wrangles, said it had been a “productive meeting”.
“As we progress forward to the UK-EU Summit in May, this Government is working to deliver for the UK to make people more secure, safer and more prosperous,” he said.
Mr Sefcovic said they had discussed “concrete ways to enhance” EU-UK co-operation “in a meaningful, balanced way”.
He said he was “looking forward to engaging on the areas of a mutual interest, while ensuring that our core agreements” – the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the Windsor Framework – are “fully applied”.
The meeting on Wednesday came after Mr Thomas-Symonds suggested improving UK-EU trade would boost ailing economies across the continent.
In a speech in Brussels on Tuesday he promised a “ruthlessly pragmatic” approach to boosting trade, defence and border security co-operation.
At the start of an intensive week of UK-EU diplomacy, Sir Keir visited Brussels for a dinner with the bloc’s 27 leaders.
A UK-EU summit is planned for May 19, where the Prime Minister will host European Council president Antonio Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
As part of the drive to strengthen ties, the EU has pushed for a new youth mobility scheme, allowing under-30s from the bloc to live, work and study in the UK and vice versa.
But this has been publicly resisted by the Government, which is wary of anything that could be seen as allowing the return of free movement.
Sir Keir’s red lines in the negotiations include not rejoining the single market – which would require free movement of people – or the EU’s customs union.
Mr Sefcovic has insisted that Brussels will “remain fully respectful of the limits the UK has set, in particular when it comes to economic co-operation” in the reset talks.
