Starmer urges the EU to participate with the United Kingdom again at the leaders’ meeting

Sir Keir Starmer on Monday night urged EU leaders to commit Britain five years after Brexit, since he refused to “choose” between narrower relationships with Brussels or Washington.

Starmer, the first British prime minister to go to the European Council of EU leaders from Brexit, said he wanted a new defense and security pact to be in the heart of a “restart” relationship.

When asked if he could have close economic ties with Europe and the United States of Donald Trump, Starmer said: “Both relationships are very important to us. . . We are not choosing among them. “

It is likely that this statement will be proven in the coming months if Trump follows his threat of tariffs against the EU, while Starmer tries to avoid that destiny when looking for better commercial terms in the United Kingdom with the United States.

The European council dinner on Monday night at the Palais D’Agmont in Brussels was a symbolic approach between the United Kingdom and the EU, just over five years after Brexit entered into force on January 31, 2020.

It was in the same palace that the conservative prime minister Edward Heath signed the treaty that brought Britain to the European Economic Community, an EU precursor, in 1972.

Starmer hopes that by offering work closely in military problems and intelligence with the EU, an area where the United Kingdom has traditional strengths, can begin to unlock broader economic benefits.

The proposed security and defense pact is expected to also cover areas such as addressing illegal migration, will be involved in broader negotiations in the United Kingdom-EU in the coming months.

It is likely that negotiations with Brussels are difficult for Starmer, and the EU demands continuous access to British fishing waters and a youth mobility scheme that would allow EU citizens under 30 years of age to travel and work in Britain.

It is expected that a complete EUK summit takes place in April or May to try to galvanize those conversations, with a growing sense in European capitals that the continent needs to heal old wounds, especially when Trump faces the transatlantic allies of the United States.

Starmer is prepared to assume some political risks, including the search to eliminate barriers for food products, even if that requires the United Kingdom to obey the EU rules and the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of Europe.

It is also seeking to link the United Kingdom carbon emission market with the EU system and potentially participating in a commercial area of ​​the EU-Mediterranean, a movement that would stop the participation of the Customs Union of the block.

Brexit’s issue is still toxic in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that a recent Yougov survey found that 55 percent of people now say it was wrong to leave the EU, with only 11 percent seeing that Brexit is more A success that a failure.

Conservative critics have called the team of officials of 50 people accused of negotiating an improved agreement of Brexit, who is headed by former Treasury official Michael Ellam, the “Squadron of surrender”.

Starmer, speaking at the NATO headquarters in Brussels before the EU meeting, said he wanted Britain and EU countries to be “ambitious” and work closely in defense cooperation, even in the acquisition of teams military

“Our defense expense is now 2.3 percent of GDP and we are working hard to establish the path to 2.5 percent,” he said. It is not clear when the United Kingdom will achieve that goal.

“We cannot be commentators when it comes to peace issues in our continent. We must lead and that is what I am determined to do. “

While France and other coastal states want to solve problems around fishing as a prelude to a broader agreement of the UK-EU, other countries will bring their own concerns to the table.

“Of course, there is still a key piece to complete in the Agreement after the United Kingdom Brexit, and that is Gibraltar,” said an official of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Complete normalization will not be possible until this agreement has been reached.”