{"id":427168,"date":"2025-05-19T17:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/19\/ue-regno-unito-summit-brexit\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T18:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:56:41","slug":"eu-uk-rapprochement-after-brexit-from-defence-to-erasmus-a-new-chapter-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/19\/eu-uk-rapprochement-after-brexit-from-defence-to-erasmus-a-new-chapter-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"EU-UK, rapprochement after Brexit. From defence to Erasmus, a \u2018new chapter\u2019 begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Defence, energy, trade, fisheries, migration, young people. At the\u00a0first\u00a0summit\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>between\u00a0\u2018an independent Britain and its allies in Europe\u2019 \u2013 as Labour leader\u00a0Keir Starmer<\/strong>\u00a0described it \u2013 held today (19 May) in the City, Brussels and London are picking up the intricate fabric of\u00a0EU-UK relations<\/strong>\u00a0and mending some of the traumatic rifts inflicted by Brexit.<\/p>\n

The rapprochement can only result from the major crises of recent times. It therefore starts with London’s participation\u00a0in\u00a0SAFE<\/strong><\/a>, the new EU instrument for financing the defence industry of Member States, and continues with\u00a0greater integration of the UK into the single market<\/strong>\u00a0in response to trade threats from across the Atlantic.\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen, Antonio Costa and Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, all three present at the summit\u2014accompanied by European Commissioner for Trade\u00a0Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong>\u2014return home with \u2018three concrete results\u2019: a joint declaration, a partnership for security and defence, and a joint understanding between the European Commission and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

“These agreements reflect our common commitments,” said European Council President Costa during the joint press conference with von der Leyen and Starmer. Addressing the British Prime Minister, he added: “We are close, allies, partners, and we are friends.” The President of the European Commission echoed this sentiment, describing the two sides of the Channel as \u2018historic and natural partners.\u2019 Starmer was more cautious, as he has to answer to those who, nine years ago, chose to cut the umbilical cord with Brussels, saying that\u00a0today’s agreement was reached \u2018in the national interest\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0and \u2018in the same spirit in which we have reached agreements with the United States and India.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to Starmer, these agreements \u2013 the free trade deal with New Delhi and the tariff agreement with Washington \u2013 have allowed London to\u00a0approach the summit with the EU \u2018from a position of strength\u2019<\/strong>. And so, less than a decade after Brexit, London has secured\u00a0\u2018unprecedented access\u2019 to the single market<\/strong>, \u2018the best of any country outside the EU\u2019. In an attempt to convince the most sceptical, Starmer rattled off a list of the advantages of the rapprochement: the reopening of the single market across the Channel \u2018will boost British exports<\/strong>\u2019, the defence partnership \u2018will offer new opportunities for industry\u2019, while cooperation on emissions trading \u2018will save British businesses\u00a0\u00a3800 million in European carbon taxes<\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n

All this, the Prime Minister assured, without crossing the red line set out in the manifesto with which he entered Downing Street: “No return to the single market or the customs union, no return to freedom of movement<\/strong>.” Brussels, on the other hand, emphasised the importance of extending full mutual access to fishing waters for twelve years, until 30 June 2038. It also highlighted the chapter on energy, which paves the way for the\u00a0UK’s participation in the EU electricity market<\/strong>: “This is positive for the stability of energy flows, for our common energy security and for lowering prices,” explained von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

As regards access to SAFE, the \u20ac150 billion defence fund, London will initially have the option of\u00a0participating in joint procurement<\/strong>. Then, through \u2018further bilateral agreements\u2019, the idea is that British companies will also be eligible for the programme. That is, provided that this instrument is approved as it stands by the EU Council, where it is still under discussion.<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue of mobility, young people and Erasmus: among the innocent and indiscriminate \u2018victims\u2019 of Brexit on both sides of the Channel are undoubtedly the hundreds of thousands of British and European students and young workers who have lost opportunities for training and growth as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU.\u00a0“I remember when I was a student here in London,” emphasised von der Leyen, who said she was \u201cvery pleased\u201d with the agreement, still to be finalised, for the\u00a0UK’s association with the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme<\/strong>. The “specific conditions, including financial ones,” should “ensure a fair balance in terms of contributions and benefits for the United Kingdom.” Also on the table is a\u00a0programme of experiences for young people, to be established with a temporary visa scheme<\/strong>, to facilitate participation in \u2018various activities, such as work, study, au pair placements, volunteering or simply travel.\u2019<\/p>\n

Today’s acceleration in the rapprochement between the United Kingdom and the European Union is remarkable. As BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer stated, “it has given momentum to our fundamental economic partnership, but now\u00a0concrete progress must be made to facilitate trade in goods and services<\/strong>.” According to\u00a0Sandro Gozi<\/strong>, Liberal MEP and chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Delegation, “for this breakthrough to be credible, we need to rebuild real trust, which translates into solid agreements on defence, security, energy and fisheries\u2019 and even more so \u2018on youth mobility, digital cooperation, artificial intelligence and research.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first EU-UK summit takes place in London. Brussels welcomes back its British \u2018neighbours, allies, partners and friends\u2019, while London acts \u2018in the national interest\u2019 and secures \u2018unprecedented access\u2019 to the single market and the possibility of participating in joint defence industry procurement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":427155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[31258,27047,31259,27638],"class_list":["post-427168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-brexit-en-2","tag-eu-en","tag-summit-en","tag-uk-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427168"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427173,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427168\/revisions\/427173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}