UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will travel to Brussels this month to "reset" Brexit. Two weeks out, the "landing zone" for a deal with the EU is looking increasingly clear — involving several agreements and a joint statement that will also mention support for Ukraine. Politico reports, writes UNN.
Details
The negotiations, which began under Burnham's predecessor Keir Starmer, include a new agri-food agreement, an agreement linking emissions trading systems, and new visas for young people.
Draft texts for all three main agreements are now largely complete and are undergoing the EU approval process, three people familiar with the state of the negotiations said.
In addition to the three new agreements, Brussels and London will also agree on a joint statement covering other aspects of their relationship.
The UK and the EU have been negotiating the agreements for 18 months. They were then postponed until the summer following the collapse of Starmer's premiership.
As the publication reports, the emissions trading agreement was effectively completed several weeks ago.
This will allow both sides to be exempt from reciprocal CBAM carbon border taxes, reduce long-term volatility, and open access to investment in emissions markets.
The difficult aspects of the planned agri-food sector agreement — also known as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement — have also been clarified.
Ultimately, the UK will align its rules with EU rules on pesticides, but transitional provisions will soften the blow for farmers who currently use products that will be banned.
The most difficult of the three issues is undoubtedly youth mobility, the publication writes.
The EU now supports the UK's plan to limit the number of visas under the youth mobility scheme, although there is disagreement over the exact number, which is expected to be between 80,000 and 100,000. The issue of the scheme's reciprocity with all EU member states also needs to be worked out.
The EU's late demand to reduce tuition fees for European students studying in the UK will be separated from the broader issue of youth mobility — and is to be considered after the summit — according to a draft statement prepared by the EU.
The UK has long stated that it is open to this idea, but only in exchange for guarantees that it will not be harmed by the EU's "Made in Europe" programme. The EU's wave of protectionist policies threatens to harm British businesses, and London wants to protect them from any negative consequences, the publication notes.
The EU says that at this stage it cannot provide guarantees regarding the "Made in Europe" programme, as the legislation is still being finalized. The UK does not want to invest hundreds of millions of pounds without anything to offset the cost.
These issues will be acknowledged at the summit in the planned joint statement, but will not be resolved immediately, the publication writes.
The draft statement says that both sides will "work towards" an agreement allowing EU students to pay domestic tuition fees, with the aim of concluding it within the next six months.
The draft says that after the three main agreements are concluded, the EU will expect their "joint and timely entry into force," emphasizing that the agreements constitute a single package. EU diplomats had previously stated that negotiations on tuition fees would have to be successful before the rest of the package could enter into force.
The draft document dedicated to the "Made in Europe" programme says that both sides "commit, on the basis of reciprocity, to strive, where possible, to limit the negative impact on each other of measures relating to specific supply chains, where this is in their mutual interests." It also calls on the UK to adopt some EU policies. Whether London is satisfied with this remains to be seen, the publication notes.
The joint statement is a catch-all document and gives both sides the opportunity to discuss issues that do not require a new international agreement.
It may include commitments to implement new measures within the existing Security and Defense Partnership. The Brussels draft, for example, proposes the "immediate" launch of a dialogue on "economic security".
It also states that both sides will support Ukraine "for as long as it takes" and condemns the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank
The EU draft also calls on the United Kingdom to halve the "early removal and deportation of foreign nationals who have committed offenses from the United Kingdom to EU member states" — a policy that is causing concern in some EU capitals.
In September, Burnham told his party that he wanted to use the meeting as a waypoint for determining "options" for the United Kingdom's future relations with the EU — possibly including reunification.
"It is unlikely that this will happen directly at the summit; instead, a corresponding statement is expected at around the same time," the publication states.