Britain hints at improved relations with Europe

LONDON – Just two weeks after winning power, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a summit of European leaders that he is determined to put an end to almost a decade of Britain’s strained relations with the continent.

“We want to work with all of you to reset relationships, rediscover our common interest and renew the bonds of trust and friendship that brighten the fabric of European life,” Mr Starmer told a summit of more than 40 European heads of state and government officials on July 18.

While the summit did not produce any new decisions, the change in the British position was greeted with evident relief by European leaders.

Moreover, chances remain high that the summit will generate diplomatic initiatives that can transform Europe’s strategic map.

Mr Starmer was addressing

a summit of the so-called European Political Community (EPC),

a new yearly political framework designed to bring together all the continent’s leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who first suggested creating the EPC in the wake of the Ukraine war, argued that some strategically important yet vulnerable states are currently outside the European Union or the Nato military alliance, and therefore have no regular opportunities to discuss their security concerns.

The EPC is not a decision-making body like the EU or Nato. It issues no summit communiques, controls no militaries, and enforces no treaties.

But it remains a useful European diplomatic framework in which countries such as Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, or Azerbaijan on Europe’s eastern approaches enjoy an equal right to be represented and heard.

Britain started preparing to host 2024’s EPC summit many months before it knew that it would hold the general elections, which took place on July 4 and brought Mr Starmer to power.

And the British always intended this week’s EPC summit to be a grand, historic affair.

It was the biggest gathering of foreign leaders on British soil since World War II. It took place at Blenheim Palace, a grand estate just outside Oxford, the birthplace of Britain’s legendary wartime leader Winston Churchill.

Mr Starmer was determined to use the occasion as a showcase for the priorities of his new government.

Although the EPC reiterated European support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and offered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky significant billing in the proceedings, the event’s British hosts focused on their two top concerns: repairing Britain’s broken relations with the EU, and strengthening border controls against illegal migration, a problem afflicting all European nations.

Mr Starmer announced that he wants to conclude a new “security pact” between Britain and the EU, enhancing cooperation in fields as diverse as armaments, cyber security, climate change and artificial intelligence.

Mr Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, responded warmly to this offer: “We welcome the new tone of the British government, and we look forward to engaging with it. We are ready to reinforce our foreign and security policy cooperation.”

However, it is not clear how such cooperation would be formalised, or how a deal over security questions would affect the much more sensitive discussion over Britain’s trade relations with the EU.

Opinion polls indicate that, while five years ago a majority of British voters thought that departure from the EU would either improve the economy or make no difference to their well-being, no less than 70 per cent of voters now consider that separation from the EU made it poorer.

Nonetheless, Prime Minister Starmer and his ministers remain nervous about reopening the sensitive debate about a potential British return to the EU. So, at least for the moment, they are just trying to work out what concessions Britain can get from the bloc on both trade and political cooperation without raising the spectre of membership.

“We’re entering into discussions, but we’re nowhere near a negotiation on the trade agreement,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told journalists present at the EPC summit.

The British hope to make faster progress on fighting illegal migration by joining existing European frameworks on handling asylum seekers, which involve clamping down on people-smuggling gangs and collaborating with their neighbours on the better policing of frontiers.

Yet even here, the devil is in the details.

Mr Starmer’s most immediate problem is how to stem the flow of illegal migrants, who often risk their lives crossing the channel separating Britain from France.

The 2024 tally for such arrivals so far already stands at more than 14,000, a record for this time of the year.

The British are seeking an agreement to return these migrants to France. However, the French argue that the fate of such people should be discussed at a European level.

“We speak about people coming from the rest of the world, and we will not take the full burden of those who are going through France to join the UK,” French President Macron warned.

Still, he appears to have hinted at some future concessions.

For the first time, a ship belonging to Britain’s Border Force, which intercepted a few illegal migrants floating in the sea, was allowed to return and land them back on French soil just as the EPC summit was taking place in Britain. Everyone claims that this was pure coincidence; few buy this explanation.

Be that as it may, progress in repairing Britain’s relationship with Europe will take more than just a good summit, and addressing the challenge of immigration is something that no European country has a comprehensive approach for.

As Mr Starmer ruefully acknowledged in his farewell comments to European leaders, “there are no silver bullets”.