“A week is a long time in politics,” said former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the 1950s. Labour’s recent election victory in the UK, along with the elections in France and the EU, have opened up new opportunities for an improved relationship with the nations of Europe, whose interests have also shifted over the last decade.
The UK has taken the initiative with the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) held on 18 July 2024 at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, in Oxfordshire. This significant new partnership not only with the EU but also with the 44 other nations from Iceland to Azerbaijan was convened, excluding Russia and Belarus.
The EPC is an intergovernmental forum for political and strategic decisions about the future of Europe. It first met after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in October 2022 in Prague, currently without much political clout.
Changed European interests require a reassessment of its relationship with the UK, as well as a reset of relations in a geopolitical world.
To genuinely redesign EU-UK relations, both sides need to quickly set common strategic priorities – perhaps through a Memorandum of Understanding. To negotiate genuine substance, both sides need to strengthen the institutional backbone of cooperation. This requires a new level of “pragmatism, flexibility and cohesion” on the part of the European Union, according to political observers.
What we see and what really happens are two different things. The European Union often struggles to consider security and economics as two sides of the same coin. Thus, successfully crafting a new model for UK-EU relations will require new long-term links.
It is often easy to highlight President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (President of Ukraine since 2019) and give him the right to address the UK Cabinet to seek Ukraine’s long-range capability. It is yet another thing for the UK’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to pledge Britain’s support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” as quoted in the South China Morning Post. Changed EU interests require a reassessment of its relationship with the UK, understandably to check illegal migration. But only history can vouch for Britain’s support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” Is this what is termed the new reset of the EU relationship with Britain?
