Preparations for a post-Brexit “reset” of relations between the UK and the EU were thrown into turmoil on Wednesday after EU member states demanded further concessions from London over fishing rights and youth mobility.
With only five days until an EU-UK summit in London, EU diplomats rejected European Commission attempts to bridge gaps between the two sides that have led to increasingly fraught negotiations.
A draft EU communiqué setting out the terms of an improved EU-UK relationship will not now be finalised until Sunday, just a day ahead of the summit, after EU member states dug in over the terms of a deal.
The bloc wants long-term access to British waters for its fishermen and cheap university fees for its students as the price for lowering the trade barriers that followed the UK’s departure from the EU single market and customs union in 2020.
“We are all unhappy with missing progress, especially on youth mobility . . . and how the British demand wide-ranging concessions without offering anything in return,” said one EU diplomat briefed on a meeting of the bloc’s ambassadors on Wednesday.
The proposed reset of relations — outlined in the draft EU text seen by the FT — seeks to deepen links in areas including security, energy and trade in agrifood products, but would force the UK to accept some Brussels rules and a role for the European Court of Justice, as well as make some payments to the bloc.
Another EU diplomat said the UK had been engaged in “intense lobbying” of the bloc’s governments in recent days to oppose an EU decision to impose a time limit on any deal to cut red tape for British food exporters if the UK did not grant long-term access to its fishing grounds.
But the EU ambassadors rejected a proposed compromise to make such an agreement “time-limited and renewable” without specifying a link to fishing rights.
“Even landlocked member states are vocally supportive of the commission in pushing for a hard link” between fisheries and a veterinary deal to facilitate exports, a third EU diplomat said.
British supermarkets have lobbied hard for a veterinary deal to smooth the flow of food, fish and animals between the UK and EU, but industry executives warned privately that the deal would need to be permanent to deliver lasting cost reductions.
The veterinary agreement would also involve “an appropriate financial contribution” by Britain.
UK ministers have not denied Conservative party claims that the planned accord with the EU would reverse key elements of Brexit, including an acceptance of the principle of “dynamic alignment” — in effect taking new rules from Brussels.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said Starmer is preparing to “trade away our sovereignty behind closed doors” and is reversing the basic principles of Brexit.
But Labour officials said Starmer was not interested in fighting the “battles of the past” and wanted to build closer relations with the EU, bringing economic benefits to Britain, cutting prices for goods and building better security ties.
London and Brussels have moved closer to an agreement in principle for a “youth mobility scheme”, offering visas to 18-30-year-olds to work, study or travel in each others’ countries, raising the prospect of additional temporary migration to the UK.
The proposed scheme would not allow participants a pathway to permanent residency or the right to claim social security benefits, with the final number of available visas capped at a maximum “acceptable for both sides”.
EU member states are insisting their students should pay the same £9,535 tuition fees as their UK counterparts when attending British universities — a stipulation that was removed from the draft communiqué spurned by EU ambassadors. “Equal fees for EU students is the aim,” another EU diplomat said.
Allies of Starmer insisted EU students will not be charged the same fees as their UK counterparts, given the importance of international fees to the finances of Britain’s university sector. “We can’t afford it,” said one.
The draft text also includes a “dispute resolution mechanism with an independent arbitration panel that ensures that the ECJ is the ultimate authority for all questions of EU law”.
Britain would be invited “at an early stage” to discuss forthcoming EU rules and would be part of the “decision shaping” process, but would have no vote or veto over proposed changes.
A UK government spokesman said the ECJ’s role in a reset deal would be the same as in the Brexit withdrawal agreement, where it would give its opinion on the interpretation of EU law, but an arbitration body would take the ultimate decision in any dispute.
The spokesman added: “These are EU internal draft texts. No final agreement has been made . . . We have been clear that we will always act in the national interest to secure the best outcomes for the UK.”
The European Commission has been approached for comment.
Additional reporting by Alice Hancock in Brussels