For now, Brussels is playing it cool. The message from von der Leyen was a familiar one: implement the deals we already have, then we can really talk.
“We have a set of solid agreements in place,” she told reporters while standing next to Starmer. “We should explore the scope for more cooperation while we focus on the full and faithful implementation of the withdrawal agreement, the Windsor framework, and the [Trade and Cooperation Agreement].”
“Member states want to capitalize on the positive momentum which seems to be there with Labour government in office,” one EU diplomat told POLITICO. “But it’s not enough to simply say one wants a reset, it requires actual work … there can only be a reset if the U.K. moves.”
‘Tone matters’
When pressed on whether his red lines matched his rhetoric of a reset, Starmer told reporters after the meeting: “Tone does matter. Resetting does matter. And that has been a very important part of the message that I have carried into the meeting today: a return to pragmatism, to doing business in a respectful way and in a way which I think will focus on deliverables rather than charging to the nearest camera to use a megaphone.”
On the issue of youth mobility, he said: “I have made it clear what our position is and in particular that free movement is a red line. But today wasn’t about those individual issues, it was about the way in which we will conduct those negotiations and the emphasis was on what we can do, not what we can’t do, and on deliverables rather than running commentary.”
Diplomats from EU member countries said they also have other priorities, like securing long-term fishing access in U.K. waters and easier cross-channel energy trading.
Asked about fishing, Starmer said “that literally was not the nature of the discussion today.”
In a joint statement issued after their meeting von der Leyen and Starmer “agreed to take forward this agenda of strengthened cooperation at pace over the coming months, starting with defining together the areas in which strengthened cooperation would be mutually beneficial, such as the economy, energy, security and resilience, in full respect of their internal procedures and institutional prerogatives.”