Major talks between the EU and UK over a new post-Brexit deal are to take place on Monday (May 19) in London, as the two look towards a major reset on relations.
The wide-ranging deal is set to renew, rewrite, and renegotiate bilateral agreements between the UK and EU following Brexit, with the aim of closer ties and improved trade.
However, several disagreements over red-line topics such as fishing rights and a youth mobility scheme are reported.
France and the Netherlands in particular are said to have wider EU support on calls to expanded fishing licences in UK waters.
UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer will travel to Albania on Friday (May 16) for a European Political Community meeting, where he will discuss aspects of the summit with EU leaders and smooth things over before next week’s negotiations.
Prior to these 11th-hour stumbling blocks, the prime minister said he was confident that he was on the cusp of securing a ‘superb’ deal with the EU, but a draft of the agreement has been met with widespread disapproval from EU politicians.
Security pact a key part of talks
The talks will cover several major areas, including a security and defence pact promoting greater military cooperation.
This new pact is seen as having greater importance since the re-election of US President Donald Trump and a seemingly imminent withdrawal of US military support and cooperation with European allies.
Closer ties on information, technology, and science are also expected, with both the UK and EU in general alignment over the topics, and closer links being seen as a ‘win-win’.
A sub-section of this security pact is also likely to revolve around curbing migration flows into the UK from Europe, something high on the UK’s agenda.
Fishing rights a major stumbling block?
This is seemingly where agreements end however, with the EU arguing the UK has not offered enough for the deals to be truly bilateral.
Licences for EU fishing vessels – particularly Dutch and French ones – to work in UK waters is a sticking point.
These nations – with wider support across the bloc – want permanent access to UK waters for its vessels, at the current rates, to be included in the deal.
The original Brexit deal orchestrated by former prime minister Boris Johnson saw EU fish quotas reduced by 25% until June 2026, with new rights to be renegotiated after this point.
The UK is only offering rights at the 2026 level for four additional years, with another renewal – and possible reduction in quotas for EU vessels – to take place again before this.
The French and Dutch say that unless the 2026 rates are permanently locked in, a new food and veterinary agreement between the countries should have its own four-year time limit (the UK wants that agreement to be permanent).
The veterinary deal is believed to be a major demand of the UK in the talks, and it could potentially make it easier for Britons with pets to travel into the bloc, as well as reduce trade friction for several animal and plant-based goods.
An unnamed EU administrator told The Guardian that the European fishing industry would be ‘destroyed’ by the talks if such licences were not granted.
“It is not possible to imagine that we have a successful summit without a positive outcome on this issue,” said a diplomat, also quoted in The Guardian.
“If you don’t have an agreement on fisheries, you don’t have an agreement on [security and defence],” they added, showing just how important the matter was to the bloc.
Reports from Friday suggested that the UK and EU had come to an agreement on the matter, with the UK providing EU fishing vessels the licences they wished for.
Youth schemes and student fees also jeopardise talks
Youth mobility and university fees are another point of contention.
The EU sees the introduction of a programme that would allow young EU citizens to live and work in the UK via a special youth mobility visa (and vice versa for UK youths) as a cornerstone of the deal, although the UK has this considerably lower down its list of aims.
EU authorities claim that British plans for the scheme – that could include a maximum one-year limit and a strict quota on the number of visas granted – are too restrictive.
The UK however has recently toughened its stance on immigration, and the ruling Labour party may believe that any concessions on immigration will be pounced on by political rivals.
In addition to the mobility scheme, the EU wants incoming tuition fee rises for non-UK students to include exemptions for EU students.
Tuition fees for EU students should be at the same level as for UK citizens.
“We are all unhappy with missing progress, especially on youth mobility . . . and how the British demand wide-ranging concessions without offering anything in return,” said an EU source (quoted in The Independent).
Disagreements over the role of the European Court of Justice, as well as the status of Gibraltar, are also reportedly threatening to impact the deal.
