The United Kingdom and the European Union have an unprecedented summit in London on Monday, five years after Brexit, destined to lay the foundations for a closer relationship, particularly in terms of defense.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, who promised to “restore” cooperation with the EU when he came to power last July, welcomes the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council Antonio Costa.
This summit is an opportunity for the work manager to specify their desire to replace Brussels and change the tensions page between 27 and the previous conservative governments linked to Brexit, which occurred on January 31, 2020.
Since then, the war caused by Russia in Ukraine and the risk of an American disconnection of the European continent have confirmed London and Brussels in their desire to harden the links in the field of defense.
If the atmosphere has heated between the two parties, the conversations are not easy: they have been tense in particular in the issues of the fishing and mobility quotas of the young.
Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen spoke on Friday in Albania outside the summit of the European Political Community (CPE) to try to flatten divergences.
The British leader has promised an agreement that “will be good for (the) works, (the) invoices and (the) borders” of the United Kingdom.
But the contours of this agreement are still lazy, and the negotiations continued on Sunday.
“Until the end”
“We are in the last hours. I expected it to last until the end, because we negotiate extremely hard, in national interest,” said the minister responsible for the EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, on Sunday morning at the BBC.
“We are going in the right direction. They ensure some details to be resolved, but it is quite positive, we will get there,” said a European diplomat on Sunday at the end of the day in Brussels, on the cover of anonymity.
Managers must announce an association on defense and security, sign a document that defines a common vision on the main world problems and another listing the archives in which they intend to progress in the coming months.
The Defense Pact would allow the United Kingdom to participate in EU ministerial meetings and join certain European military missions, beyond the common common commitments with NATO EU countries.
For London, the problem is also economical, with the key to accessing its companies to the future European program with 150 billion euros aimed at developing the industrial defense base within the EU. However, participation in this program will require another agreement, in a second step, as well as a British financial contribution.
In addition to the defense, the Labor Government, which seeks to stimulate the penalty for administrative formalities born from Brexit, suggested that it was open to dynamic alignment with EU standards for food and agricultural products.
An agreement on these health and phytosanitary standards would help British producers who “face administrative documents and controls to export to our closest and most important commercial partner,” Downing Street said.
“Capitulation”
But some EU countries have put other requests in balance, such as the renewal of the access of European fishermen to British waters, and a reciprocal mobility program for young people from 18 to 30 years to study and work in the United Kingdom and the EU.
Sensitive subjects on the British side, even more with the emergence of the euro euro and the reform of the United Kingdom anti-immigration party led by former Brexit Nigel Farage champion. Keir Starmer wants to avoid anything that increases legal immigration figures, which has pledged down.
The Head of Government repeats his “red lines” to envy: there is no doubt to return to the common market or in the customs union, there is no doubt to restore free circulation.
But the agreement is not even concluded that Nigel Farage, as well as the leader of the conservative opposition Kemi Badenoch, has already described it as a “capitulation” against Brussels.
For Anand Menon, Director of the United Kingdom in a Cambling Europe Reflection Center, the summit is “the beginning, perhaps, of a process in which the formal relationship will evolve for the first time after the Commerce and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)” that governs the relations between the two blocks from the departure of the United Kingdom.
Source: BFM TV
