Fish, the court and youth access: EU’s demands for Starmer’s reset

 

Fish, the court and youth access: EU’s demands for Starmer’s reset

 

The EU sets the bar high for trade talks with British prime minister, according to report by The Times.

 

December 14, 2024 12:34 pm CET

By Koen Verhelst

https://www.politico.eu/article/united-kingdom-europe-keir-starmer-court-fish/

 

Brussels will demand the U.K. to accept its court, no changes to the access of EU fishermen in British waters and a youth mobility program in exchange for discussing new terms of the trade deal between the two sides, according to a report in The Times.

 

The U.K. will have to swallow jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union, meaning London would accept EU laws applying for the first time since Brexit, the British newspaper reported. The Times writes that the outline for talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government will be presented to a meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday.

 

A spokesperson for the European Commission, which is in charge of EU trade policy, declined to comment.

 

The 19-page document originates with the Hungarian government, which is currently chairing meetings of the EU's national governments. The demands in the document, which the Financial Times reported on earlier this week, are more of a wish list toward the Commission before the EU national governments give Brussels a mandate to actually start formal talks with London.

 

Brussels would seem unwilling to start talks with Starmer before these ground rules are agreed upon. Ever since the Labour leader got to Downing Street, he’s been making overtures to the EU on resetting the post-Brexit relationship.

 

Renegotiating the so-called Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), would be the most concrete part of that. The first review of the deal, struck by Conservative former PM Boris Johnson, is coming up in 2026.

 

For fishing rights, “the maintenance of the status quo is essential for member states,” the document states, according to The Times.

 

More broadly on a deal involving food trade, the U.K. would have to turn all the EU’s rules on production and processing safety into British law. Pushing for having Brussels recognize British rules as “equivalent” — and therefore good enough — would not fly, the document states, according to the report.

 

Finally, the EU wants to push London for a youth mobility scheme akin to the Erasmus exchange program, which is one of the flagship policies in the bloc, according to the report. Previous British governments rejected this for the perceived uptick in migration.

 

POLITICO reported the stipulation on accepting the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice in May, citing a senior EU official as saying oversight by the Luxembourg-based court would be a “prerequisite.”