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Today’s edition is powered by Meta<\/b><\/p>\n
EU parents support app store parental approval*<\/b><\/p>\n
Three out of four parents support a law requiring parental approval for teens under 16 to download an app (*survey of parents by Morning Consult across France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Ireland, The Netherlands and Denmark).<\/p>\n
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\nLONDON \u2013 The three agreements unveiled by the EU and UK in London today amount to a gilded to-do list. But Keir Starmer\u2019s \u2018reset\u2019 summit was only ever about symbolism, not fish or farming.<\/b>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nNone of the pre-deals announced today will winch the once regnant Britannia back up the economic slipway down which she slides \u2013 into literally shit-infested<\/a> waters. Nor will another statement of European defence solidarity see Vladimir Putin lose sleep. But nobody still\u00a0paying attention to the\u00a0post-Brexit relationship expected<\/a> such miracles.\n<\/p>\n \nSo what cause did Ursula von der Leyen and the British prime minister have to be so jubilant as they left Lancaster House?<\/p>\n \nFor one, the programme for future trade talks is sensible \u2013 and therefore indicative\u00a0of a page turned. A pledge to link emissions trading schemes heralds the end of the British pursuit of regulatory divergence for divergence\u2019s\u00a0sake. Alignment of agrifood standards means the UK crosses the Rubicon on rule-taking from Brussels\u00a0and its courts. Both have been utterly poisonous to progress. Starmer has, to his credit, consigned both to the Downing Street dustbin.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nAlso telling is the cautious optimism of EU officials who, for old times\u2019 sake<\/a>,\u00a0were re-debating and re-drafting this reset overnight until the last available moment.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nEven thornier issues await them, some of whom are nigh on a decade at the table. The next reset should probably include personnel. The veteran head of the Commission’s team for the trade deal has moved on. More fresh faces \u2013 less weary of past British transgressions and less repulsed by the soggy Exki sandwiches served for lunch day after day in the negotiating \u2018tunnel\u2019 \u2013 should bring fresh impetus, even goodwill.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nOf course, goodwill will primarily come from having a more honest interlocutor in London. Starmer\u2019s unpopular government has spent much of this month overselling wafer-thin trade deals, with pacts with the US and India accompanied by dizzying spin. He disappointed EU diplomats with his premature acclamation of a deal well done on Saturday<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nBut behind the pomp and photo-ops,\u00a0the ceremonial facade couldn’t cover the reality of how strained the relationship has been.\u00a0The reset only “begins to arrest that decline”, the British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told a small group of foreign press, including Euractiv, after the summit.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nPerhaps Labour fears a Nigel Farage-led backlash should they court Brussels too enthusiastically. Or perhaps they\u2019ve realised that repairing ties severed by a once-in-a-generation decision might well take another generation to do properly.\n<\/p>\n \nGiven Starmer\u2019s political demeanour<\/a>, the smart money\u2019s on the former. But if it\u2019s the latter, the three bits of paper produced today could be worth plenty more than their scantiness suggests.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Roundup \nSunday election highs and lows \u2013<\/strong> Pro-EU candidates emerged victorious on Sunday<\/a> in three bellwether elections in Romania, Portugal and the first round of Poland’s presidential race.\n<\/p>\n \n\u20ac150 bn for joint defence procurement \u2013 <\/strong>EU countries agreed on a final version of a \u20ac150 billion loan plan<\/a> aimed at boosting joint European defence procurement.\n<\/p>\n Across Europe<\/p>\n \nUK media reacts to EU rapprochement \u2013 <\/strong>The UK’s right-wing media wasted no time in bashing the deal agreed by centre-left Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It made for entertaining reading<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nPublic sector strike in Belgium \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Public transport in Brussels will be \u201cseverely\u201d disrupted this Tuesday<\/a> as public sector workers once more march against spending cuts.\n<\/p>\n \nMeloni the “bridge-builder” \u2013<\/strong> Giorgia Meloni held a meeting in Rome on Sunday with JD Vance and Ursula von der Leyen, marking the first official US-EU leadership meeting<\/a> since Donald Trump took office.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe EU-UK win-win \u2013<\/strong>The EU and UK signed on Monday<\/a> a security pact and agreed on a ‘reset’ deal that includes commitments on food trade, energy and mobility.<\/p>\n