We need to look for stabilising buoys in this stormy sea.<\/p>\n
Today, we are \u00a316,000 per year per person poorer<\/a> in the UK than we would have been if we had sustained pre-2008 levels of economic growth. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t think we should be despondent. But what we do abroad affects us at home. And our international position has been weakened. <\/p>\n The European agenda for Britain<\/a> goes wider than the EU, not least because the EU needs to work with non-members like the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and Turkey on security and economic matters. New institutional arrangements are going to come into play on different issues, as the EU seeks geopolitical efficacy alongside economic renewal. <\/p>\n We have already seen some of that in the way Nato and the EU are working closely together. But I am going to focus here on the UK\u2019s relations with the EU.<\/p>\n The government has agreed an agenda it calls a \u201creset\u201d. The focus is on veterinary standards, energy and youth mobility, with defence on a separate track. But the negotiating path is tricky. The Security Action for Europe defence procurement negotiations have foundered. And, if we know anything from EU negotiations, it is that they are draining of energy and goodwill unless they are given political momentum.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we are suffering a punishing Brexit tax<\/a> every day. For example, the picture on goods trade should be getting far more attention. The combined value of imports and exports as a share of GDP<\/a> grew from 30 per cent in 1975 to 67 per cent last year.<\/p>\n Estimates put the cost of being outside the customs union at 0.5-1 per cent of GDP<\/a>, so of the order of \u00a315-\u00a330bn a year. The government ruled out joining the customs union<\/a> in its manifesto. <\/p>\n We simply cannot afford to stand still on these matters. Of course, further progress needs the EU to cooperate.<\/p>\n The British interest, it seems to me, is to put more cards on the table to create political momentum. There are obvious examples, if we are willing to look for them.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s remember that, when we were members of the EU, we had the right to deport every person who arrived in a small boat from France back to the country in which they first touched European soil<\/p>\n For example, to mitigate the fiscal pain of increased defence spending, the UK should be all in on the idea of the proposed \u20ac800m European Defence Mechanism (EDM), which would issue long-dated bonds to pay for increased defence spending. <\/p>\n The danger is that this EDM proposal, which would mutualise the costs of Europe\u2019s increase in defence spending, gets stuck in the \u201ctoo difficult\u201d box. In fact, given the security and fiscal positions of countries across Europe, it should be in the \u201cessential\u201d box.<\/p>\n When it comes to the AI revolution, we need to plot a clear course to being an \u201cAI maker\u201d and not just an \u201cAI taker\u201d.<\/p>\n We are ahead of the EU in facets of the (AI) race, but we share a need to build European capability if we are not to be vulnerable clients of the two emerging AI superpowers.<\/p>\n On migration, let\u2019s remember that, when we were members of the EU, we had the right to deport every person who arrived in a small boat from France back to the country in which they first touched European soil. I run a humanitarian organisation and have argued throughout my time at the International Rescue Committee that orderly, fair and speedy migration rules and decisions are in the interests of refugees as well as host populations.<\/p>\n Europe is our continent, our alignment of interests with the EU and its members is wide-ranging, and the time for fresh and unconstrained thinking is now. Far from globalisation<\/a> going away, globalisation is going to crowd in on us. <\/p>\n Today, the task is not to seek to restore lost dominance, but instead to recover the moral clarity and political vision of who we are and what we stand for. Britain<\/a> remains a European country. We need to behave like one, cooperate like we understand its implications, and realise that the rest of the world does not owe us anything. If we don\u2019t get our act together, more fool us.<\/p>\n Adapted from \u2018The Brexit Effect: 2016-2026<\/a>\u2019 edited by Anthony Seldon and published by Cambridge University Press on 18 June (\u00a316.99)<\/p>\n Join the community<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2271527149...jpeg\")
David Miliband (Getty)<\/p>\n