Sir Keir Starmer is heading to Brussels to join a gathering of European Union leaders \u2013 the first time a British prime minister has done so since Brexit.<\/p>\n
Starmer is heading over the English Channel for talks focused on defence and security co-operation and will also meet Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n
The trip is part of what he calls a \u201creset\u201d between the UK and the European Union.<\/p>\n
The government has promised the UK will not re-join the EU\u2019s Single Market or Customs Union, or sign up to freedom of movement.<\/p>\n
But ministers do want what they see as a better relationship on defence and security, crime and trade.<\/p>\n
They hope to sort this out by the spring and finalise it at a UK-EU summit, possibly in April or May.<\/p>\n
Leaders of the European Union\u2019s 27 member states are gathering for what is described as an \u201cinformal retreat\u201d at the Palais d\u2019Egmont in Brussels \u2013 a 16th century palace in heart of the Belgian capital.<\/p>\n
The backdrop is clear: the ongoing war in Ukraine and the return of Donald Trump to the White House.<\/p>\n
The EU acknowledges it needs to take greater responsibility for its own defence \u2013 a key and recurring demand of President Trump, as he threatens the bloc with import taxes or tariffs.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said: \u201cPresident Trump has threatened more sanctions on Russia and it\u2019s clear that\u2019s got Putin rattled. We know that he\u2019s worried about the state of the Russian economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to work with our European partners on keeping up the pressure, targeting the energy revenues and the companies supplying his missile factories to crush Putin\u2019s war machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause ultimately, alongside our military support, that is what will bring peace closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK is also exploring closer ties with the EU on dealing with serious and organised crime, and, crucially, trade.<\/p>\n
Allowing food and animal products to be traded more freely is being discussed, as is cooperation on energy with a possible tie-up between the UK and the EU\u2019s emission trading schemes.<\/p>\n
The mutual recognition of professional qualifications and allowing touring musicians to travel more easily are also themes of interest.<\/p>\n
Plenty in the EU are keen on a youth mobility scheme allowing young people from the UK and the EU to travel much more easily.<\/p>\n
But such a scheme will sound to some rather like freedom of movement, albeit for a narrow chunk of the population and so may be a hard sell for the UK politically.<\/p>\n
It is also likely, given the respective sizes of the EU and the UK, that more young people from the EU would come to the UK than vice versa.<\/p>\n
Ministers have rejected the idea so far.<\/p>\n
The EU has also floated the UK joining what is known as the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention.<\/p>\n
The Convention isn\u2019t quite a customs union but removes customs on the components that go into a product that are sourced from the other countries signed up to it.<\/p>\n
Notably, the UK has not ruled out signing up to this and it is not seen by the government as a breach of its red lines.<\/p>\n
Some sectors, such as the car industry, with its \u2018just in time\u2019 supply chains, would likely welcome such a move but other manufacturers would be exposed to greater competition.<\/p>\n
Leading the technical negotiations for the UK is Michael Ellam, who worked in Downing Street when Gordon Brown was prime minister.<\/p>\n
Ellam has been tasked with managing what is known as the \u201cthe EU Relations Secretariat\u201d within the Cabinet Office, which the prime m inister set up shortly after the general election to lead on his planned \u201creset\u201d with the EU.<\/p>\n
As the negotiations continue, Starmer knows he faces political pressure from both sides of the argument.<\/p>\n
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed \u201cthe Labour government are trying to reopen the divisions of the past and edge us back into the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has said the government should be negotiating to re-join the customs union.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sir Keir Starmer is heading to Brussels to join a gathering of European Union leaders \u2013 the first time a British prime minister has done so since Brexit. Starmer is heading over the English Channel for talks focused on defence and security co-operation and will also meet Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte. The trip is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}