Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday accept an invitation to talks on defense cooperation with the European Union, in the first such meeting between a British prime minister and the bloc's 27 leaders since Brexit.
Antonio Costa, the new European Council president, will extend a symbolic invitation to Starmer during a meeting in Downing Street, in a sign of improved relations between the two sides.
Costa's meeting with Starmer comes just 12 days after he took office in Brussels, a sign that the former Portuguese prime minister wants to prioritize the bloc's relationship with the UK.
On Thursday, he will discuss his invitation to Starmer to attend dinner with EU leaders on February 3 at an unofficial resort in Belgium on security matters. “The Prime Minister will accept the invitation,” one British official said.
Starmer will be the first British prime minister to meet the 27 since Brexit in 2020, although he has attended gatherings of the wider European political community like his Conservative predecessors Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
Costa and Starmer will also work on setting dates for an EU-UK summit in the first half of 2025, which will be the focal point for efforts to “reset” relations after Brexit, including lowering barriers between the two sides.
But officials in Brussels stressed that it was too early to enter into detailed talks about resetting relations. The EU has postponed the adoption of the negotiating mandate for what is now called the “Youth Experience Plan”.
An EU official said Costa was expected to hold an informal discussion on political developments, including developments in the Middle East.
“It is worth noting that in the current geopolitical context, this would be a moment to focus on the fact that the EU and the UK have a common position on many topics, such as Ukraine,” the source said.
The meeting comes amid growing concern among the pro-European wing of Britain's ruling Labor Party over the ambition to “reset” the EU and the UK, particularly with regard to improving trade relations and concluding a deal to empower young people aged between 18 and 30. To live, work and study in each other's countries.
Starmer is expected to sign a new security partnership agreement with the EU early in the new year. But he has been particularly cautious about the trade and mobility elements of the reset, and has repeatedly ruled out an agreement on youth mobility.
Meanwhile, voters in the UK and major EU countries appear more open to strengthening EU-UK relations than politicians on both sides, especially in light of Donald Trump's win in the US presidential race, according to a new poll.
An opinion poll published by the European Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday showed that about 55 percent of Britons support establishing a “closer” relationship with the European Union, compared to 10 percent who want it to be more distant.
There was also widespread support among major EU countries for an EU-UK rapprochement, with more than 40 per cent of Germans, Poles, Spaniards and Italians supporting closer ties. French respondents were more hesitant, with only 34 percent supporting it.
The YouGov and Datapraxis poll, which included 9,278 respondents in six countries, also found a very clear preference among Britons to prioritize relations with Brussels over Washington after Trump returns to the White House.
Asked whether the UK should prioritize relations with “our European neighbours” or with the US, 50 per cent of respondents chose Europe, 17 per cent chose America, and the remainder did not express a preference.
The EU has also been very 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 original post-2017 talks.
However, the think tank's survey found that EU respondents were more willing to accept giving the UK “special access” to the EU single market in order to strengthen the strategic partnership.
Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the poll showed the Brexit-era divisions were fading, adding: “Governments now need to catch up with public opinion and deliver an ambitious reset.”
