BRUSSELS \u2013 Closer ties with the EU are a \u201cpatriotic decision\u201d Britain\u2019s Brexit chief has said as the two sides move to tighten ties even further in the wake of the unravelling relationship with Donald Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n
At a meeting of the UK-EU Forum in Brussels, a conference on post-Brexit relations, senior leaders from both sides said in the wake of current global turmoil there was \u201cno alternative\u201d but to \u201cput emotion aside\u201d and accelerate closer alignment.<\/p>\n
It comes amid deteriorating relations between the United States and Europe and the UK, and the economic turmoil caused by the Iran war. In Washington on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves described the war as a mistake.<\/p>\n
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In Brussels. European Parliament president Roberta Metsola suggested the UK should have a \u201cbespoke\u201d deal, rather than follow other models for third countries, while Britain\u2019s Brexit minister Nick Thomas-Symonds warned that a more dangerous world was forcing Britain and the European Union back together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe meet at a time of profound global instability,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world\u2026 is becoming a more dangerous place.\u201d In that context, he added: \u201cThere is no UK security without Europe, and no European security without Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n
His message indicated that the UK Government is moving beyond the caution that has defined the post-Brexit years and is now openly embracing closer co-operation \u2013 and, crucially, alignment of food and drink regulations \u2013 as a matter of national interest.<\/p>\n
Thomas-Symonds acknowledged the economic drag created by Brexit-era barriers, pointing to more than a million export health certificates issued since 2023, and hundreds of millions of pounds in additional costs for British businesses.<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, he described regulatory alignment not as a concession but as a \u201cstrategic choice\u201d and even a \u201cpatriotic decision\u201d when it boosts growth and reduces friction. <\/p>\n
\u2018The most ambitious agreement\u2019<\/p>\n
Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU trade commissioner who leads negotiations on the EU side, struck a notably constructive tone, emphasising both the strength of the existing framework and the scope to deepen it further.<\/p>\n
He described the current Trade and Cooperation Agreement as \u201cthe most ambitious agreement ever concluded by the EU with a third country\u201d but stressed the focus was now on building on that foundation.<\/p>\n
\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d confirmed that both sides are working to conclude key issues \u2013 including youth mobility, SPS arrangements and carbon market linkage \u2013 by the upcoming summit, while also advancing talks on UK participation in the EU\u2019s internal electricity market.<\/p>\n
Significantly, he also acknowledged Britain\u2019s evolving position, noting that the EU had \u201ctaken good note\u201d of the UK\u2019s desire for closer alignment and was exploring how far that could go. <\/p>\n
Roberta Metsola told the forum the political case for a reset is now overwhelming. She argued that a decade after Brexit, both sides must \u201ctake the emotion out of the discussion\u201d and focus instead on practical co-operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no alternative to a strong and constructive EU\u2013UK relationship,\u201d she said, pointing to shifting geopolitical realities as a decisive factor.<\/p>\n
Metsola rejected the idea that Britain should slot into an existing template such as the Norwegian or Swiss models, insisting instead on a bespoke relationship that reflects its status as a former member state. \u201cThe United Kingdom is not any other third country,\u201d she said. \u201cIt needs to be treated as such.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Thomas-Symonds, she emphasised the real-world costs of divergence, citing businesses deterred by regulatory complexity and arguing that agreements on food standards, carbon markets and energy could deliver immediate economic benefits.<\/p>\n
That shift is already feeding into concrete negotiations. Talks on food and animal imports, electricity trading systems, and a youth mobility scheme are all advancing \u2013 in some cases ahead of schedule \u2013 with the aim of delivering results by the next EU\u2013UK summit this summer.<\/p>\n
The agreement to allow the UK to rejoin the EU\u2019s Erasmus+ student exchange programme from 2027, signed this week, was presented as an early symbol of what a more pragmatic relationship can deliver.<\/p>\n
If the UK is now signalling a willingness to move closer, Brussels appears increasingly ready to meet it halfway.<\/p>\n
An Ipsos poll presented at the forum showed 43 per cent of respondents see EU-UK interests as the same or mostly the same, up from 32% in 2023. It follows a More in Common poll earlier this week which showed two-thirds of respondents \u2013 66 per cent \u2013 backed improved trading terms with the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS \u2013 Closer ties with the EU are a \u201cpatriotic decision\u201d Britain\u2019s Brexit chief has said as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[934,141,4034,59,57,58,50,426,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-535327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-greatbritain","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-trade","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}