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The German ambassador to the United Kingdom has expressed hope that next month’s EU-Muaji summit will be just the beginning of a warming of relations and can set fertile ground for a future compilation of Brexit’s Brexit Agreement.
Miguel Berger said that while much depending on the “level of the British Government’s ambition”, the EU would be open to discussing options when the trade agreement and cooperation of Prime Minister Johnson came out for a planned five-year summary in 2026.
Leaders at the May 19th Summit in London will initially agree on a new EU Defense and Security Pact and a communiqué setting a package of reforms, which both parties hope to negotiate by the end of 2025.
These areas include an agreement on youth movement, energy cooperation, regulating border controls on food products and mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
But Berger said that if the talks in May were successful, they could pave the way in 2026 to a second wave of reforms when London and Brussels review the functioning of TCA, which came into force in January 2021.
Berger told a session of evidence organized by the UK Trade and Business Commission in the United Kingdom last week that the summit would only be the “starting point” of negotiations.
“It is very important that the TCA review that comes next year is a politically linked process,” he said.
Some in Brussels see the revision of TCA as a largely technical exercise and believe the deal is working well, but other diplomats think there is room to make it better in the interest of both parties.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s “red lines” – which exclude Britain returning to the single market, customs union or free movement – are also significant obstacles and Berger said: “We undoubtedly accept the red lines as they were determined.”
But he added: “After all, for us, it is the issue of the level of the British government’s ambition. If the British government wants to move further, we are open to discuss this.”
“Let’s start with what is on the table. These are very essential points. My hope is that after moving forward on these topics, we hope we will create a dynamic of cooperation that can allow us to go further than what is currently on the table.”
Throughout the EU-UK reset process under the Labor Government, Germany has been an enthusiastic promoter of the deeper engagement with the United Kingdom. Berlin’s appetite for closer links has often exceeded those of British politicians and the EU central bureaucracy in Brussels.
In January 2024, Berlin submitted a discussion document to the European Commission, the Block’s executive wing, which defended the improvement of the ability of young people and professionals to work in the United Kingdom and the EU, in a sign of its goals to deepen relations with Britain.
As well as the mobility of young people for 18-30 years old, the newspaper, seen by the Financial Times, said that if the future discussion of the Movement between the EU and the UK “had a wider focus”, it could include a number of provisions to help business exchanges.
These included the reduction of costs and documents for German businesses required by second employees and their families to work in the UK, easier conditions for NGO Rotary Workers and prolonged visas for salary and self-employed professionals.
Whereas, from the trade point of view, the current resettlement talks remain strongly limited to a so -called veterinary agreement to remove the red border bar for food and plant exports and a movement to reconnect EU and UK energy markets, trade groups want to see more ambitions over time.
In December, the British Chambers of Commerce set out a trade manifesto demanding more flexibility for business travelers, a VAT cooperation agreement, rejoicing with the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean trade agreement and approximating industrial regulations, among other ideas.
So far Brussels has opposed the UK demands for deeper integration into the EU single market, unless the United Kingdom accepts wider obligations, including paying EU budgets and accepting elements of EU law.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves at the weekend signaled her support for a youth movement agreement, telling Sunday Times that “we want to enable young people from Europe and the United Kingdom to be able to work and travel abroad.” But she warned that net migration should fall.
Anton Spisak, associated with the Center for European Reform Think-tank, said “the true obstacle to taking privileged access to the only market is the mobility of people.”
