Julio García
The European Union and the United Kingdom will hold their first bilateral summit on British soil on May 19 since Brexit was consolidated five years ago, an event that will not be attended by the 27 leaders but by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, António Costa.
This has been confirmed by both the British Government and Costa himself, a day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer attended an informal dinner with EU heads of state and government as a guest on Thursday in Brussels, with the focus on strengthening cooperation in security and defence matters.
In a speech at the annual EU ambassadors’ conference on Friday, Costa said that there is a “new positive energy” from the bloc towards the United Kingdom, with whom the Union shares “threats” and a “clear interest in strengthening cooperation.”
Also in Brussels on Friday, the British Minister for Relations with the EU, Nick Thomas-Symonds, stressed that the EU and the United Kingdom share “interests and challenges” in a context of global change and proclaimed the commitment of the new British Government to comply with the agreements signed after Brexit; while warning that London sees “real opportunities to improve the ‘status quo’”.
Until now, the European Union has remained waiting to find out what the British Government means by ‘restarting’ relations, since in the contacts that have taken place so far London has not put forward any concrete proposals, except last year rejecting a first attempt by Brussels to reach an agreement on a plan to facilitate the mobility of young people on both sides of the Channel.
The dinner on Thursday, which lasted just over an hour, served to make it clear that the European Union and the United Kingdom are “trustworthy and predictable partners,” Costa told reporters afterwards. He explained that during the first meeting between the 27 and the British leader, the dialogue focused on defense and security, but that he is convinced that they can do “much more together.”
