Meeting with European leaders yesterday in the EPC summit in Woodstock, Keir Starmer sought to “reset” the previous government’s policy with Europe and establish a “new geopolitical partnership” with the continent. With American isolationism on the rise, the UK is in a strong position for European alignment.
How The Summit Went
The European Political Community (EPC) is an incredibly new organisation, with yesterday only being its fourth summit. The EPC was founded in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and contains non-EU states such as Turkey, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK.
The decision to host yesterday’s summit in the UK was originally planned by the Conservatives, who although generally opposing closer EU ties, have been highly supportive of Ukraine. Under the Conservatives, the UK was a strong proponent of the EPC’s creation.
Due to fortunate timing, the new government has been given the perfect opportunity to set out their agenda to European leaders, particularly its EU members. However, despite Starmer pledging to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, meetings reportedly stayed on the expected issues of immigration and defence.
Immigration is a central issue to UK voters, with Starmer’s pledge to use his experience as Director of Public Prosecutions to crack down on smuggling gangs likely contributing to Labour’s favourability on this issue. As such Labour will be eager to deliver clear progress on international co-operation.
Starmer once again reiterated his support for Ukraine and pledged unity in the face of potential Russian aggression. He attempted to cool European fears of the US abandoning Ukraine by stating that he would “not pre-empt” the 2024 election.
Regardless, European leaders, particularly Ukrainian president Zelensky appeared concerned of the impact that a second trump presidency would have on the conflict.
What Does Starmer Want From Europe?
With Keir Starmer’s pledge to reset the status-quo with Europe interpreted by voters as a promise to pursue greater integration with the EU, Starmer will have to deliver big.
In the run-up to the election, Labour’s rhetoric for closer relations with Europe focused on individual countries, pledging a bilateral security pact with Germany, but stopping short of a direct EU-UK pact. Upon coming to power, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced far more ambitious plans.
In an official government statement titled ‘It’s time to reset Britain’s relations with Europe’, Lammy promised to enact a direct UK-EU security pact. Although advocating broad improvements in EU-UK ties, little featured besides security alignment. Reading the statement, you would think that the EU was a military alliance rather than an economic and political bloc.
The government’s EPC press statement was titled ‘Security at the heart of UK’s reset with Europe’. Starmer has been keen to emphasise security in this conference. There’s a reason for that.
Starmer’s Leverage
During the Brexit negotiation period, the ability of the UK to gain concessions by threatening to withdraw without a trade deal was completely ineffective by the fact that it would do vastly more damage to the UK than the EU.
On defence, however, Starmer possesses significantly more leverage than in 2017. In the run-up to the EPC summit yesterday, European leaders across the political spectrum expressed enthusiasm towards the possibility of the UK supplementing European defence.
As mentioned in a previous article, the threat of US disengagement from Europe has been gradually increasing, all while Ukrainian ammunition stocks dwindle. European leaders are increasingly preparing for the end of US involvement in the continent. Possessing arguably the most powerful military in Europe, the UK would be crucial to this aim.
Whilst segments threatening nuclear strikes on Britain have become an event for all the family on Russian state TV, EU nations, particularly the three formerly Soviet Baltic states, are facing a far more direct threat from Russian aggression than the UK.
The EPC’s founding role as a defender of European states against Russian aggression has given Starmer the perfect opportunity to emphasise the security importance of the UK to important figures within the EU.
In the coming months, Starmer will have to be careful to strike a fine balance in resetting EU relations. On the one hand, the government have the incentive to deliver concrete results on improving EU ties to voters. On the other, with the rhetoric coming out of the United States, the UK must be wary of coming across as transactionary, making support for Ukraine conditional on economic concessions.
As such, Starmer’s rhetoric on Thursday was designed more to charm European leaders than to hammer out specifics. Starmer made some bilateral announcements on security and immigration with individual European leaders, but the main effect of the summit was in showing that the UK remained committed to European security.
Final Thought
Political circumstances have lined up perfectly for Starmer. Not only has the conference come at just the right time for Starmer to set out a new foreign policy direction, but geopolitical events have increased the UK’s relative importance. Only a few months ago, it was generally believed that significant renegotiation on the withdrawal agreement would be incredibly difficult.
However, one wet Prime Minister, a botched debate performance and an assassination attempt later, Europe has a far greater incentive to sit down with the UK. With high support for better EU relations among both the general public and Labour members, Starmer is in a strong position to improve the UK’s international reputation whilst securing a big win on domestic popularity.
Not everything’s sunshine and rainbows for the new Prime Minister. The same geopolitical shifts that are making European leaders reliant on a friendly UK will leave the UK increasingly alone to face international threats.
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This article was written by Chamber UK’s features writer – Alex Connor.