The agreement, described by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as \u201chistoric\u201d, was unveiled at a London summit on Monday, the first between the two sides since the UK left the EU in 2020.<\/p>\n
Britain and the EU are seeking to deepen their ties five years after Brexit, as Donald Trump\u2019s US presidency strains transatlantic relations over issues including trade tariffs and Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the agreement was unveiled, UK chancellor Rachel Reeves said she hoped it would lead to further EU deals to smooth trade.<\/p>\n
Referring to Monday\u2019s agreement, she added: \u201cIt\u2019s significant but there are things I think we could do to make trade easier.\u201d She was disappointed the deal did not include plans to help British musicians to tour in Europe.<\/p>\n
Britain had previously proposed an extension of EU access to its fishing grounds of only four to five years, but Starmer\u2019s Labour government agreed to a longer-term deal in return for open-ended provisions to ease UK food products\u2019 entry into the bloc. Current access arrangements for EU fishermen to UK waters were due to expire in 2026.<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen said the agreement marked a \u201cnew chapter\u201d in the EU\u2019s relationship with the UK, while Starmer hailed it<\/a> as a \u201ccommon sense, practical\u201d solution that moved on from the \u201cstale old debates\u201d about Brexit<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch denounced the deal, saying the government had \u201csurrendered\u201d on fisheries and the fact that Starmer had agreed to accept Brussels rules on food standards to facilitate easier trade.<\/p>\n Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wrote in the Daily Express: \u201cThis isn\u2019t Starmer\u2019s first time bending over backwards to appease EU interests. His betrayal of British jobs and national priorities has been evident since the day he took office.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer<\/a> said that, together with a plan to link the UK and EU\u2019s carbon emissions trading systems, the streamlined food exports rules \u2014 delivered through a proposed veterinary agreement \u2014 would bring \u00a39bn of economic benefits to Britain.<\/p>\n The UK has conceded that removing barriers to trade in foodstuffs will require Britain to \u201cdynamically align\u201d, or stay in step, with EU regulations as they change. The UK will also make payments to the EU to fund work on food and animal standards.<\/p>\n The new rules would help Northern Ireland, which is treated differently to the rest of the UK under the terms of Britain\u2019s departure from the EU, by reducing checks on food and animals crossing the Irish Sea.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n But Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen\u2019s Federation, described the UK-EU deal as \u201ca horror show\u201d and \u201cfar worse\u201d than the previous Brexit agreement finalised by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. <\/p>\n Jonathan Reynolds, UK business secretary, said the fishing sector would benefit from the promised veterinary deal, arguing it would help the industry sell to the EU.<\/p>\n The British government also announced it was providing \u00a3360mn for fishing and tourism in coastal areas. <\/p>\n UK food and drink exports to the EU, a far bigger sector than the politically charged fisheries industry, were worth \u00a314bn in 2024, according to the Food and Drink Federation, a trade group.<\/p>\n Economists at Aston University have estimated that UK agrifood exports to the EU could be boosted by more than 20 per cent on the back of a vet deal. By contrast, the UK fishing industry accounts for only about 0.04 per cent of Britain\u2019s national output.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The UK and the EU signed a communiqu\u00e9 promising deeper economic co-operation during a two-hour meeting at Lancaster House involving Starmer, von der Leyen and European Council president Ant\u00f3nio Costa.<\/p>\n The two sides signed a defence and security partnership that could give the UK defence sector access to a \u20ac150bn fund of cheap loans<\/a> backed by the EU budget, subject to a second more detailed agreement. <\/p>\n Starmer claimed the deal would allow British holidaymakers to enter the EU more quickly through the use of passport e-gates, after the European Commission indicated there were no legal obstacles. However, final decisions must be taken by EU member states. <\/p>\n Both sides were locked in intense haggling in the early hours of Monday over details of their revamped relationship, including wording about a proposed youth mobility scheme.<\/p>\n Tensions remain over the youth scheme, with the agreement containing only a loose commitment to \u201cwork towards\u201d such an arrangement and Britain\u2019s return to the Erasmus student exchange programme. <\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n Starmer said the scheme would be time-limited, subject to number caps, and would not lower university fees for EU students at British universities to UK levels, which had been a key demand of the bloc.<\/p>\n The overall deal was unlocked when the UK agreed to open fishing waters for 12 years and the EU granted London\u2019s late request to exempt more British steel from emergency tariffs.<\/p>\n The commission agreed to ask member states to grant a guaranteed tariff-free quota, which the UK said was worth \u00a315mn a year to its steel industry. <\/p>\n Additional reporting by David Sheppard and Anna Gross<\/p>\n Letter in response to this article:<\/strong><\/p>\n This Brexit leopard never changes its spots<\/a> \/ From Rupert Boswall, Staplehurst, Kent, UK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London and Brussels have agreed a post-Brexit reset of relations that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-140183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114588589446244119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/42cb5566-1fb4-4fe5-ae8d-80404fbe61cc.jpg\")
The two sides in talks at Lancaster House on Monday \u00a9 Kin Cheung\/PA <\/p>\n![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net.jpeg\")
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