{"id":37680,"date":"2025-04-21T06:58:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37680\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T06:58:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:58:22","slug":"brussels-lowers-its-expectations-for-keir-starmers-brexit-reset-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37680\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels lowers its expectations for Keir Starmer\u2019s Brexit reset \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas-Symonds, who at the same committee hearing accepted that the “steep part” of negotiations had not yet begun, will also be in Brussels next week, speaking alongside his EU counterpart Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d at Tuesday\u2019s annual U.K\u2013EU Forum conference. One U.K. official said the minister\u2019s address to the conference would focus on how the government would \u201conly do things that are in the national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

European diplomats are conveying their frustrations with Britain\u2019s stance to contacts back in the U.K. One British person who speaks regularly to the EU institutions said: \u201cIf you talk to anyone in Europe, they ask \u2014 \u2018what do you actually want\u2019?\u201d A second asked of the Cabinet Office\u2019s unit for European relations: \u201cWhat are they actually doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Asked what model the U.K.\u2019s preferred phytosanitary agreement might take, Brexit minister Nick Thomas-Symonds would only tell a parliamentary committee in January that it would be \u201cbespoke.\u201d | Benjamin Cremel\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

U.K. officials argue it is natural that some ambassadors and foreign ministers will not know the full details of discussions because, they say, they are taking place directly with the Commission.<\/p>\n

Nurturing and watering<\/p>\n

The senior EU diplomat quoted above warns not to expect an \u201cepiphany\u201d from Starmer’s attendance on Monday \u2014 but said it is an important staging post for the renewed relationship nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people would like things to happen immediately. That said, that\u2019s not how the world of international relations often works, nor the world of politics,\u201d they told POLITICO, adding: \u201cI think we actually are seeing progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diplomat pointed to the recent appointment of British negotiator Michael Ellam and a planned full-fat U.K.-EU summit later in the spring as signs that change was in the air \u2014 however slow and limited in scope.<\/p>\n

\"\"A senior EU diplomat warns not to expect an \u201cepiphany\u201d from Starmer’s attendance on Monday \u2014 but said it is an important staging post for the renewed relationship nonetheless. | Pool photo by Benjamin Cremel\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As for those earlier high expectations? Perhaps it was necessary to adopt a \u201cmuch more pragmatic approach to where the [U.K.-EU] relationship is going,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a growing awareness that this is a plant that needs nurturing and watering and that we are gradually going in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas-Symonds, who at the same committee hearing accepted that the “steep part” of negotiations had not yet begun,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,6852,473,32,2000,299,5187,1699,21604,4884,807,2992,1216,809,810,46,811,6861,1201,16,15,6863],"class_list":{"0":"post-37680","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-customs-union","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-euroskeptics","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-keir-starmer","20":"tag-mark-rutte","21":"tag-maros-sefcovic","22":"tag-negotiations","23":"tag-nick-thomas-symonds","24":"tag-policy","25":"tag-security","26":"tag-single-market","27":"tag-trade","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-united-kingdom","30":"tag-visas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114374659634441095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37680","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=37680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}