{"id":652382,"date":"2026-06-22T15:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652382\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:39:14","slug":"european-leaders-pay-tribute-to-starmer-as-eu-uk-summit-is-postponed-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652382\/","title":{"rendered":"European leaders pay tribute to Starmer as EU-UK summit is postponed | European Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

European leaders have paid tribute to Keir Starmer<\/a> after he announced his resignation as the British prime minister, triggering the postponement of an upcoming EU-UK summit.<\/p>\n

The European Council president, Ant\u00f3nio Costa, said: \u201cFor sure we need to postpone it, but we are reassessing the opportunity to hold this new summit \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wish is \u2060that [Starmer\u2019s] successor \u200bwill give \u200bcontinuity on \u200bthis path to \u200breset \u200cour relationship \u200bwith \u200bthe UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after Starmer\u2019s resignation speech at No 10, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen<\/a>, tweeted: \u201cIt can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years. European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual EU-UK summit was announced for 22 July only last week, after weeks of uncertainty and delay. With Andy Burnham hot favourite to be the next British prime minister and unlikely to face a contest, Starmer\u2019s last outing on the world stage could be the Nato summit in Ankara on 7-8 July.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, thanked Starmer for \u201call our cooperation, your support, and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger\u201d. While Kyiv expressed frustration with UK support during the early part of Starmer\u2019s premiership<\/a>, Zelenskyy offered warm praise: \u201cKeir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kremlin\u2019s chief spokesperson said Starmer had \u201cnot done anything to distinguish himself on the issue of British-Russia relations\u201d adding that it was unlikely anyone on the British political scene would take a different position.<\/p>\n

German chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s spokesperson said Starmer had always been \u201ca reliable and close partner in foreign policy questions, particularly regarding Ukraine\u201d. Starmer is expected to attend an E5 meeting on Wednesday in Berlin, where Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Poland will prepare for the Nato summit.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump offered his best wishes, laced with characteristic attack lines, even before Starmer made his Downing Street announcement. \u201cKeir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. \u201cHe failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well!\u201d<\/p>\n

After an unexpectedly smooth start between the pair, differences were revealed when Trump disparaged Nato allies, prompting an angry rebuttal from Starmer<\/a> over the \u201cinsulting and frankly appalling\u201d comments about British troops in Afghanistan. Trump also criticised the UK over the Chagos Islands and, most significantly, over Starmer\u2019s refusal to offer military support in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n

Trump, who waged an unsuccessful legal battle with the Scottish government to stop a windfarm development near his Aberdeenshire golf course, has also accused Starmer of \u201cwindmilling the country to death\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other traditional allies struck a different note. Australia\u2019s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he was thinking of his friend on \u201cwhat must be a very tough day. Serving in public life is a tremendous privilege but politics can also be a harsh business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s prime minister, Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re, also a centre-left leader, said: \u201cThe United Kingdom is Norway\u2019s close ally in Europe, and over the past two years our countries have grown even closer through important agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he announced the postponement of the summit, Costa said under Starmer\u2019s premiership \u201cwe turned a new page in EU-UK relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU is committed to continued cooperation in this spirit,\u201d he added, describing Starmer as a friend.<\/p>\n

At the postponed EU-UK summit, the two sides hoped to sign agreements on a food and drink deal to ease border checks, linking emissions trading systems and a youth mobility programme.<\/p>\n

Post-referendum EU-UK relations turned a corner under the last Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in 2023 with the signing of a Northern Ireland Brexit deal.<\/a> Relations became warmer when Starmer won power in July 2024, although many EU officials thought the government\u2019s reset hopes were unrealistic.<\/p>\n

While the EU and UK signed a security partnership in May 2025, the two sides failed to find an agreement on British participation in the EU\u2019s \u20ac150bn Safe defence loans scheme.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Guardian earlier this month, Germany\u2019s former Europe minister Micael Roth, who was Starmer\u2019s counterpart during the Brexit negotiation years, said: \u201cWe cannot be happy if a close partner is in such a very, very challenging, difficult situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe very much hoped for a more stable government.\u201d He added that Germany, France and Spain were among the European countries also afflicted by political troubles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European leaders have paid tribute to Keir Starmer after he announced his resignation as the British prime minister,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-652382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652382","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=652382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}