The UK and EU have announced a range of historic and wide-ranging new agreements touching on trade, defence and borders,
The Conversation reports.
Since the 2016 Brexit vote, COVID and conflict have changed the global economic landscape dramatically – with consumers feeling the effects every day. So the time could be ripe for a “reset” of relations between the UK and its largest trading partner.
Beyond trade, the two sides have agreed to negotiate further on a youth mobility scheme. And in future, travellers with UK passports will be able to use e-gates and avoid lengthy queues in some European countries.
But the agreement is also fraught with political risk, as opposition parties circle to capitalise on the vexxed question of tighter UK-EU relations. We asked a panel of experts for their analysis of the announcements.
These were the first steps towards the much-vaunted Labour UK-EU “reset”. The announcement of agreements between the UK and EU covered security, energy and fisheries.
But the announcement falls short of key UK priorities for the reset, which includes a series of measures to facilitate trade with what is still the UK’s largest trade partner and market. The bloc represented 48% of UK goods exports, 36% of services exports, and 51% of goods imports in 2024.
Fisheries represent roughly 5% of UK agriculture, fisheries and forestry exports, and 0.03% of the UK economy. That may be a smaller slice of GDP than many people might think. But given the regional concentration of the fishing industry, it is vitally important to those communities. The situation is the same in EU countries.
Fisheries was a difficult issue to tackle in the negotiations for the 2021 UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement (TCA). Under the TCA, the EU agreed to phase out 25% of its catch share in British waters.
And there was an understanding on permits to fish species subject to fishing quotas that would allow fleets to fish in each others’ waters. The terms of this were due to expire in June 2026.
