UK PM Starmer pledges ‘ambitious’ reset of relations with Europe during Berlin visit

The leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom announced plans on Wednesday to draw up a treaty meant to deepen the two nations’ trade, defence and other ties, as new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer moves ahead with plans for a “reset” of relations with the European Union.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he welcomes fellow centre-left leader Starmer’s desire for a new beginning in relations with the EU, and “we want to take this outstretched hand”.

Starmer, who took office in early July after the previous Conservative government was trounced in an election, sent a signal by visiting Berlin early in his term — unlike predecessor Rishi Sunak, who took 18 months.

But his talk of starting anew with the EU has its limits. He has ruled out many of the major possible steps to closer ties and has been cool to the idea of a youth mobility agreement with the 27-nation bloc.

“I’m absolutely clear that we do want a reset … with Europe, a reset with the EU,” Starmer said in Berlin.

However, “that does not mean reversing Brexit or reentering the single market or the customs union, but it does mean a closer relation on a number of fronts — including the economy, including defence, including exchanges, but we do not have plans for the youth mobility scheme.”

But four years after the UK left the EU, Starmer says he wants to rebuild ties strained by years of ill-tempered wrangling over Brexit terms.

He said that he hopes to conclude the bilateral agreement with Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, by the end of this year.

“That will be ambitious, it will be wide-ranging, covering trade, the economy, defence and many other issues,” he told reporters. The two leaders are among Ukraine’s biggest military backers and stressed their commitment to keeping up that support.

Migration remains a priority

Starmer said that the two countries also plan to draw up a “joint action plan to tackle illegal migration.” His government still faces pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, though it scrapped the Conservatives’ contentious plan to send them on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

Migration is also an issue on which Scholz’s government has long been under heavy pressure, even more so since Friday’s attack in Solingen in which a suspected extremist from Syria who had avoided being deported is accused of killing three people.

The proposed UK-Germany treaty is partly based on agreements London struck in recent years with France on defence, security, and closer law enforcement cooperation against people-smuggling gangs.

Starmer’s visit to Berlin is part of a two-day trip to the EU’s top powers — Germany and France.

On Tuesday, he visited the Brandenburg Gate before meeting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier early on Wednesday.

Later, Scholz greeted him with military honours outside the chancellery. Starmer will head to Paris later on Wednesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and attend the opening of the Paris Paralympics.