The United Kingdom’s new Labour Party government has said it wants to build a closer trading relationship with the European Union, after years of strained post-Brexit ties with the bloc.
The reset began in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on Tuesday, with closed-door meetings between the UK’s new Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and his counterparts from G7 member nations. The sessions were set to include sit-downs with Valdis Dombrovskis, vice-president of the EU Commission, and Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice-chancellor.
Reynolds was due to deliver a speech in Italy on Wednesday, during his first overseas visit since the Labour Party’s election landslide win on July 4, in which he will tell G7 trade ministers collectively that a “confident, outward-looking, future-facing UK is ready to play our part on the international stage”.
A draft of his speech issued in advance, states the UK now has “a strong government with an even stronger mandate from the British people, one that respects, wants to partner with and is open for business”.
After a period of increased tension between the UK and the EU attributed to the nation’s 2016 decision to leave the bloc, coupled with successive Conservative Party administrations that entrenched differences, Reynolds planned to say “Britain is back on the world stage and ‘open for business'”.
Closer relationship
“We are seeking a closer, more mature, more levelheaded relationship with our friends in the European Union,” the draft said.
The UK’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also signaled he wants closer trade ties with the EU by inviting the bloc’s leaders to a one-day European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace near Oxford on Thursday.
The Guardian newspaper said the prime minister is aiming to “walk a tightrope” by both massively strengthening ties with the EU and also making it clear that the UK will not be rejoining the bloc, something experts believe the British public is not yet ready for.
About 41 percent of the UK’s exports of goods and services were sent to EU nations in 2023, while some 52 percent of its imports were from the EU, highlighting how important the two-way ties are.
The Labour Party’s warmer tone around UK-EU ties could manifest itself during the first scheduled review of the Brexit deal that was agreed in December 2020, as the nation left the bloc.
The terms of the trade deal between them reached at that time call for the agreement to be reviewed every five years, with the first such review expected in 2026, which will offer them both a chance to formalize a closer relationship.
