The UK-EU relationship: time for a reset?

Concerns and cooperation

The UK’s relationship with the EU has been far from perfect since Brexit. In recent years tensions and mistrust have hampered cooperation.

However, the atmosphere around UK-EU relations has improved following the Windsor Framework agreement and close cooperation in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This presents a window of opportunity for a wider reset.

Our full report identifies four priority areas that require political attention:

• the overall political and diplomatic relationship
• foreign policy and defence
• energy security and climate change
• mobility of people.

We urge the UK and the EU to now engage in a systematic effort to develop a more mutually cooperative relationship.

We call for a considerable increase in political engagement between the UK and the EU in order to rebuild mutual trust.

Regular UK-EU summits should be held as a focus for political and diplomatic engagement, similar to those that the EU holds with other major international partners.

We also recommend that greater use should be made of existing structures that have been largely inactive in recent times, due to the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

We welcome UK participation in the new European Political Community, which provides additional opportunities to engage with European partners on matters of common interest. However, this cannot be a substitute for direct engagement with the EU.

We conclude that greater engagement with the EU will need to be complemented by a coordinated approach to EU policy within the UK government, and between Whitehall and the devolved governments.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the scale of the shared challenges that the UK and the EU face in foreign policy and defence.

We consider that the time has come for closer and more structured cooperation in these areas.

One of our proposals is that the UK Foreign Secretary should meet with the EU Foreign Affairs Council at least twice per year.

We welcome the close and productive engagement between the UK and the EU in response to the war in Ukraine. However, we believe that more formal cooperation is needed on implementation and enforcement of sanctions.

We are pleased that the UK will participate in the 'Military Mobility' project under the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) defence programme. Further opportunities for defence cooperation with the EU that are complementary to the role of NATO should be considered as they arise.

There is a strong mutual dependence between the UK and the EU in terms of energy security, especially in the context of current challenges.

We are pleased that energy trading continued without disruption through the 2022-23 winter. This should be built on through closer political cooperation and an agreement to guarantee energy flows in a crisis.

The UK and the EU should also work together closely on installing additional interconnectors, which will be pivotal to ensuring future energy security and achieving decarbonisation targets.

There would be substantial mutual benefits to linking the respective UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes. One reason for doing this would be to mitigate the potential impact on UK exporters of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Younger people have been disproportionately impacted by post-Brexit barriers to mobility of people between the UK and the EU.

The UK already has successful youth mobility schemes with partner countries around the world, which allow young people to travel and work for a limited period within a host country. We urge the Government to discuss a similar arrangement with the EU.

School visits between the UK and the EU have value as a means of exposing children to different cultures and we regret the substantial decline in the number of trips since 2019. A youth group travel scheme should be reintroduced to address this.

The Turing student exchange scheme has some strengths, but we regret that it does not support inbound placements at UK universities. The Government should explore the possibility of adding a reciprocal element to Turing.

We have made our recommendations to the Government and it has two months to respond to our report, which was published on 29 April 2023.

Read the full report on our website.

Find out more about our inquiry and our committee.

Follow us on Twitter @LordsEUCom