The United Kingdom and the European Union reached a landmark agreement centered on fishing rights and defense cooperation Monday, five years after Brexit.
British Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds announced the deal as officials from both sides met in London for their first major summit since the U.K. formally left the 27-nation trade bloc in 2020. That followed a slim-margin 2016 referendum vote calling for the U.K.’s departure. The government of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials, billed the summit as a major milestone in resetting relations.
“Historic day,” Thomas-Symonds wrote on X on Monday. “After months of negotiations, I can announce that the Labour Government has secured a new agreement with the EU.”
Starmer’s chief negotiator said the agreement was good for jobs, bills, borders and more.
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“Britain back on the world stage, with a Government in the service of working people,” Thomas-Symonds added, without further elaborating on the details of the deal.
Starmer has stressed that the U.K. will not rejoin the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union, nor agree to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the EU. The prime minister has faced growing challenges from the Reform U.K. party, which supported Brexit and opposes mass migration policies upending the powerful island nation.
Reform, which recently won big in local elections, and the opposition Conservative Party have already called the deal a “surrender” of U.K. sovereignty to EU leadership in Brussels.
“The white flag has been waved outside Downing Street. The great EU surrender by the UK is taking place as we speak,” Reform UK’s Richard Tice told British media, billing the deal as a betrayal of the terms of Brexit on fishing in particular.
Talks on strengthening ties focused largely on security and defense, and on a youth mobility plan that would allow young Britons and Europeans to live and work temporarily in each other’s territory. That remains a politically touchy issue in the U.K., seen by some Brexiteers as inching back toward free movement, according to the Associated Press. The U.K. already has youth mobility arrangements with countries including Australia and Canada.
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Another issue that has long been a sticking point in U.K.-EU relations is fishing — a symbolically important issue for the U.K. and EU member states such as France. Disputes over the issue nearly derailed a Brexit deal back in 2020. The summit is also expected to cover aligning standards on the sale of agricultural products, which could eliminate costly checks on food products exported across the English Channel.
Thomas-Symonds told the BBC he was confident that trade could be improved for food imports and exports.
“We know we’ve had lorries waiting for 16 hours, fresh food in the back not able to be exported, because frankly it’s just going off, red tape, all the certifications that are required, we absolutely want to reduce that,” he reportedly said.
The New York Times cited an unnamed European diplomat as saying the agreement will allow European boats access to U.K. fishing waters until June 30, 2038.
The agreement comes as the return of President Donald Trump brings a greater sense of urgency for cooperation between the U.K. and the bloc, as the incoming U.S. administration takes a new approach to European trade and security, as well as the Ukraine-Russia war. It’s unclear how Trump, who backed Brexit, will react to Starmer’s new deal with the EU.
“The reset could still be blown off course by disagreements over how to consolidate existing areas of cooperation like fisheries and/or external factors, such as a negative reaction from the U.S. to the U.K. seeking closer ties with the EU,” Jannike Wachowiak, a research associate at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, told the AP.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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