Sir Keir Starmer will host EU chiefs at a major summit on May 19 as he pushes for progress in his effort to ‘reset ‘ relations with Brussels after the turmoil of the years since the Brexit<\/a> vote in 2016.<\/p>\n Ms Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia has made little secret of her bewilderment at the Macron government using the rights of French trawlers to operate off Britain as leverage at a time when Europe faces a major threat from Russia<\/a> and weakening US resolve under Trump.<\/p>\n But speaking to the BBC<\/a>‘s Newsnight she said both sides were ‘working intensively’ towards a deal, adding: ‘In this security environment, in this global security environment that we are in I think the co-operation between the UK and the European Union<\/a> is extremely important for both sides.’<\/p>\n Pressed further on the fishing deal she rolled her eyes and crossed her fingers, saying: ‘I think we are over the fish \u2026 any deal is not together unless everything is agreed, we still have a few elements there but I hope that we will get there.’<\/p>\n However, there may be a last-gasp new problem caused by Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Madrid’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares suggested to the same programme that progress on the security deal could depend on resolving the issue of Gibraltar’s border.<\/p>\n Kaja Kallas said ‘we are over the fish’ ahead of a major summit in London next week where Sir Keir Starmer hopes to confirm UK firms will join a 150 billion euro joint defence fund.<\/p>\n Ms Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia has made little secret of her bewilderment at the Macron government using the rights of French trawlers to operate off Britain as leverage at a time when Europe faces a major threat from Russia.<\/p>\n On Friday, Sir Keir told the Guardian that he is ‘ambitious’ about what could be achieved with the EU.<\/p>\n Talks on new rules governing the border between Spain and Gibraltar have been ongoing since Britain left the EU in 2020, but so far no agreement has been reached.<\/p>\n The Government, in line with its Conservative predecessors, has said that it will not sign up to a deal that gives sovereignty over Gibraltar to another country, or that the Gibraltarian government is not content with.<\/p>\n Gibraltar was ceded to the UK by Spain in 1713 and the population is heavily in favour of remaining a British overseas territory.<\/p>\n The last time it voted on a proposal to share sovereignty with Spain, in 2002, almost 99 per cent of Gibraltarians rejected the move.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Newsnight on Monday, Mr Albares suggested progress on the security deal could depend on resolving the issue of Gibraltar’s border.<\/p>\n He said: ‘I think the relationship between UK and European Union, it’s a comprehensive relation, a global relation, not just a pick-and-choose relation. Because there are many, many things that we have to talk (about), Gibraltar included.<\/p>\n ‘So I would like to see a global deal on everything to make sure that the relationship is as smooth as possible.’<\/p>\n The Government has said Gibraltar will ‘always remain part of the British family’, but it had ‘inherited a situation’ that ‘left Gibraltar’s economy and way of life under threat’.<\/p>\n Foreign minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares used a BBC interview to suggest that the UK’s future relationship with the EU would be linked to the future of the historic enclave.<\/p>\n Since December 2020, a post-Brexit deal between the UK, Spain and the EU has allowed citizens of Gibraltar to remain part of the border-free Schengen area among other EU agreements. But no permanent solution has yet been found.\u00a0<\/p>\n The meeting in London is likely to be the first in a series of annual summits between the UK and the EU.<\/p>\n On Friday, Sir Keir told the Guardian that he is ‘ambitious’ about what could be achieved with the EU.<\/p>\n ‘I want a closer relationship on security, on defence, on trade and on the economy,’ he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n Last month Ms Kallas, whose country was occupied by Soviet Russia until 1991, mocked France for bringing up fishing rights, suggesting that the threat from Putin was on a different level entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme in April she said: ‘I’m definitely pushing this from my side because I think the UK is a very important defence and security partner, it’s the most logical defence and security partner that we have and it is a beneficial relationship for both sides.’<\/p>\n And laughing, she added: ‘I’m learning in this job \u2026 fish to the French they are very important.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain and the EU have made an agreement on fishing rights in UK waters, allowing a \u00a3130billion defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11330,92,2000,299,5187,807,257,12,332,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-97857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brussels","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-keir-starmer","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114500183304399942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97857","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=97857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kaja](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98326125-0-image-a-66_1747132683272.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ms](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98326149-0-image-a-67_1747132685303.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98323713-0-image-a-68_1747132687972.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Foreign](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98304531-0-Foreign_minister_Jos_Manuel_Albares_used_a_BBC_interview_to_sugg-a-69_1747132862216.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Since](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98304549-0-Since_December_2020_a_post_Brexit_deal_between_the_UK_Spain_and_-a-70_1747132864153.jpg\")
<\/p>\n