Britain wants to reset its Brexit reset

LONDON — Keir Starmer came to power promising to reset Britain’s relationship with the European Union. As 2025 rolls in, that's looking tricker than he thought.

By all accounts, the new U.K. prime minister is getting on well with EU leaders. But misunderstandings over visas for young people, disputes over fish, and the small matter of being taken to court by the European Commission have put a dampener on things.

To get the show back on track, Starmer has filled his diary with trips to Brussels, including a major EU-U.K. summit penciled in for “the first half of 2025.”

A separate meeting in the Belgian capital at the beginning of February will focus on security, while Brexit Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds is planning to meet his EU counterpart Maroš Šefčovič roughly every two weeks — as negotiations enter what he calls a “new phase.”

The Brexit reset, it seems, is getting a reset of its own.

Bogged down

While London and Brussels both say they want to improve the U.K-EU relationship, they are yet to nail down exactly what that would mean in practice. The February meeting could be an opportunity to fix that.

Of the “several strands” where cross-channel cooperation could be improved, a defense agreement is emerging as the most promising, according to one senior EU official.

“We see strong potential to move forward with the U.K. on a defense agreement,” the official commented. “The meeting on Feb. 3 is a good opportunity to discuss this. Then we have to assess whether we have agreement to move forward with that, on both sides.”

Making progress on an area where London and Brussels see most eye to eye could help put the reset exercise back on track in other areas.

Britain’s new government spent most of the fall bogged down in questions over where it stands on EU demands for a youth mobility scheme — which Brussels sees as essential to the reset. The young Labour administration is worried the idea smells too much like EU migration, a difficult political issue in Britain. It hasn’t ruled the idea out, but the official line is that it has “no plans.” That hasn't stopped the questions.

“I’ve been clear from the get-go that freedom of movement is a red line for us, and no plans in relation to free movement on any level, but we’re entering into discussions,” Starmer told the Brexit-supporting Sun newspaper when asked about the scheme in the run up to Christmas.

Unlike freedom of movement, a youth mobility program would simply make it easier for British and European youngsters to access time-limited visas to move across the Channel for a few years. The idea polls well, but Labour strategists remain worried.

Despite a careful start to talks and few solid demands, Starmer has already found himself accused of betraying Brexit by Euroskeptics back home. Tory opposition leader Kemi Badenoch used her last parliamentary question before Westminster’s Christmas break to lambast the prime minister for “planning to give away our hard-won Brexit freedoms,” while Euroskeptic newspapers have already characterized a corps of civil servants set up to work on talks as a “surrender squad.”

Meanwhile, the perceived indecision is starting to grate on the other side of the Channel. A recent delegation of members of the European Parliament to the U.K. ended with the chair of Strasbourg’s Committee on Foreign Affairs quoting '90s girl band the Spice Girls: “Tell us what you want, what you really, really want.” The Parliament’s standing delegation to the U.K. in December also passed a text warning that “concrete commitments” were needed to prevent Starmer’s diplomatic exercise turning into a “reset in name only.”

Europe’s political tides have also conspired against Starmer. The British prime minister spent much of his first six months in office building a close relationship with social democratic German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is now on his way out and widely expected to be replaced by a conservative.

Shibboleths

Apart from youth mobility, Brussels has made clear it sees extended access for European fishing fleets as the entry price to talks — another politically sensitive area and rallying point of Euroskeptics.

The U.K.’s own demands aren’t entirely straightforward, either. Brussels has indicated that a Labour manifesto commitment to sign a new deal on agricultural produce would require Britain to sign up to further European Court of Justice oversight — another Brexiteer shibboleth. A separate election promise — a better deal for touring British artists — is looking difficult to achieve while freedom of movement remains a red line in London.

At a parliamentary committee hearing in December, Brexit Minister Thomas-Symonds repeatedly referred to his party’s manifesto promises as “examples” of things which could be achieved, compounding the uncertainty as to exactly what London is after.

In the early months of 2025, the EU-U.K. summit will act as a target for Thomas-Symonds and his EU counterpart Šefčovič to work towards. Both have said that by that meeting, they want to see significant progress.

While the clock is ticking, the deadline is not as dramatic as it could be: Brussels and London will ultimately control the date of the meeting — which is yet to be set. Even the format for the gathering is yet to be confirmed: one EU official told POLITICO it’s likely to consist of at least Starmer and the heads of the EU Commission, Council and Parliament. Another diplomat suggested member states could have a role to play, too.

It’s a fitting state of affairs for a summit about a relationship where nothing yet seems to be quite nailed down.