EU leaders ‘open-minded’ about future relationship with UK, top official says | European Union

European leaders are “open-minded” about how to reset relations with Britain and are not ruling out a UK-EU summit in the future, a senior EU official said ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Oxfordshire on Thursday.

But they said the ball was firmly in the UK’s court and they were waiting for an offer from London on issues such as youth mobility and citizens’ rights to move things forward.

The Labour government’s intention to reshape the relationship will not be on the official agenda of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace, but Keir Starmer is expected to discuss it at two bilateral meetings – one with the Irish prime minister, Simon Harris, at Chequers on Wednesday evening and a second with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Oxfordshire on Thursday.

“We are open to seeing what can be achieved. We have clear demands regarding youth mobility, regarding citizens and I think we would appreciate more coordination and cooperation. [with the UK]” said the senior EU official.

EU sources said there was a “clear” appetite for foreign policy coordination and a willingness to look at trade relations, which have become more difficult with Brexit’s customs and regulatory requirements.

They stressed that the original Brexit deal was not open to renegotiation, consistent with the prime minister’s pre-election promise that the UK would not re-join the EU single market or customs union.

The new EU Relations Minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, travelled to Brussels on Monday for an introductory meeting with Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission Vice-President responsible for relations with the UK.

EU sources said meetings with Starmer on the sidelines of last week’s Nato summit went well; they were aware of the UK’s desire to “reset” the relationship and if there was a desire to move forward with a new strategic relationship they would consider it.

Asked whether this would include a UK-EU summit, like those taking place with many other non-EU countries such as Egypt, senior officials said they were “not ruling anything out”.

About 45 European and non-European leaders will meet in Blenheim, Winston Churchill’s hometown, on Thursday. European diplomats expect Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be among them.

The brainchild of Macron, the short, informal summit is designed to facilitate ad hoc meetings between prime ministers to forge and strengthen ties in a way that is not possible at other meetings.

European sources say Macron will co-chair a working group on defense and democracy with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, while a second group on the same topic will be chaired by European Council President Charles Michel and the representative of Montenegro.

Italian Giorgia Meloni will chair a working group on migration for the second time with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. At the last EPC in October in Spain, the two leaders, along with Rishi Sunak, Macron and the then Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, agreed on a five-point plan to combat people-smuggling networks.

An EU diplomat said Thursday’s EPC summit was an “opportunity for Starmer to set a different tone on migration” after torpedoing Sunak’s deportation plan to Rwanda.

A third group of leaders will discuss energy.

At least one country will seek to move forward on other one-off projects, including the protection of monuments and cultural heritage in conflict zones and rail interconnectivity.

Many EU countries are expected to press Starmer to explain their desire to introduce youth mobility and Erasmus academic exchange programmes, which they see as an important way to help the next generation build cross-border understanding. “Otherwise they will grow up not knowing each other, which will be bad for Europe,” one diplomat said.