{"id":954265,"date":"2026-05-12T06:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954265\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:45:28","slug":"uk-minister-attends-eu-informal-european-affairs-council-in-nicosia-in-first-post-brexit-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954265\/","title":{"rendered":"UK minister attends EU informal European Affairs council in Nicosia in first post-Brexit invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Nicosia, Cyprus.<\/strong> British Minister for European Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds said his presence at the informal European Affairs council in Nicosia was a \u201chistoric moment\u201d as he joined EU counterparts. It is the first time since Brexit that a UK minister has been invited to the informal meeting.<\/p>\n<p>First UK minister invitation since Brexit<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a real historic moment. It\u2019s the first time that a UK minister has been invited to and will speak at this council since Brexit,\u201d Thomas-Symonds said.<\/p>\n<p>Visit to Cyprus and prior trip<\/p>\n<p>Arriving at the venue to attend a working lunch, Thomas-Symonds said it was \u201cparticularly delightful\u201d to be back in Cyprus. He said his last trip to Cyprus was in November 2025 to discuss deepening security and economic cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>Call for cooperation amid instability<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we see increasing foreign interference in our democracies, and we see the global instability that the world faces at the moment, the message that I\u2019m going to be bringing today is this isn\u2019t a moment to be increasing barriers between like-minded partners. This is a moment to be working together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Cyprus EU Council presidency and UK message<\/p>\n<p>Thomas-Symonds said it was \u201cgreat\u201d to be in Cyprus, which is currently holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council. He also cited comments by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying there was determination by the government to put the United Kingdom \u201cat the heart of Europe\u201d and that shared challenges are \u201cbetter tackled together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What do you think the UK and EU should prioritise in working together on shared challenges?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicosia, Cyprus. British Minister for European Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds said his presence at the informal European Affairs council&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954266,"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-954265","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\/116560260448962208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954265","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=954265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}