Britain's Starmer in Brussels to flesh out EU 'reset' pledge
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00:00British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on his first visit to Brussels.
00:03He's conceded his much-vaulted reset with the EU will not be easy,
00:08despite improved mood music between the two sides
00:11after the rancour of Brexit.
00:13Starmer holding talks with the European Commission chief,
00:16Ursula von der Leyen, as his Labour government seeks a fresh start
00:19with the 27-nation bloc after ousting the Conservatives in July.
00:24We're going to cross to Brussels,
00:25talk to our correspondent who joins us from there, Dave Keating.
00:28Dave, how well did this go for Keir Starmer?
00:31It's been a long time coming
00:33and he's been pushing various different measures, hasn't he?
00:39Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say whether this went according to plan
00:42for Starmer because no one's really sure what the plan is.
00:46So since being elected, Starmer has said he wants a reset in UK-EU relations,
00:51which, of course, were very bad during the previous Conservative government.
00:55And the EU has been happy to hear that.
00:57However, he hasn't really come out with anything tangible
01:00in terms of ideas for how to change the post-Brexit relationship.
01:05And in fact, he's maintained the same red lines
01:08as the previous Conservative government, as Boris Johnson.
01:11So he said no alignment with EU law, no entering the single market,
01:15no joining a customs union and no free movement.
01:18And that has really tied his hands in terms of what he can actually
01:22get changed in terms of the relationship.
01:25So when he exited the building here behind me, the Berlaymont EU headquarters,
01:29he really didn't have anything.
01:31So after this meeting with President von der Leyen,
01:34they agreed only to hold more meetings.
01:36They agreed to have a regular UK-EU meetings starting early next year.
01:41Believe it or not, that is minimal progress because that's something
01:44that the previous Conservative government wouldn't even agree to.
01:48But on the EU side, they're growing increasingly impatient here.
01:52They have offered something that they say wouldn't violate
01:55Starmer's red lines, which is this youth mobility pact,
01:59which would allow British students to study in EU countries for up to four years
02:03without having to get a student visa and vice versa for EU students going to the UK.
02:08But the Starmer government has rejected that out of hand.
02:11They feel that it would look to the British public too much like free movement.
02:16Of course, it's not free movement.
02:18The students have to go back after four years.
02:20And the UK has similar agreements in place with Australia and Canada.
02:23But it shows just how much the optics are driving here.
02:26Starmer is afraid of losing those so-called red wall voters,
02:30the Labour voters who voted for Brexit in 2016,
02:33but then came back to Labour this July.
02:36So very much you can see how cautious the Starmer government is being here.
02:41The problem is time is kind of running out and the EU's patience here isn't inexhaustible.
02:46Yeah, it does sound like there are still an awful lot of problems to overcome, Dave.
02:51Yeah, that's for sure.
02:53I mean, the point to really stress here is all of the Brexit pain hasn't even hit yet.
02:57The UK hasn't fully implemented the divorce deal.
03:00They've delayed applying customs rules to goods coming from the EU.
03:05And Brexit has already significantly hurt the British economy.
03:09And more pain is is set to come.
03:11And President von der Leyen stressed this when she was speaking next to Starmer
03:14here yesterday, when she said before we can talk about any future relationship,
03:18the UK needs to fully implement the existing divorce deal.
03:23Now, Starmer wants to tinker with that, but first they actually have to apply it.
03:27And this you see the anxiety here within Starmer's cabinet,
03:30because the people who are in charge of the economy
03:33are really pushing Starmer to drop those red lines,
03:36to try to tangibly change the trading relationship.
03:39But the people in charge of internal affairs and migration,
03:43they're very worried about the optics of being seen to cave in to the EU.
03:47Now, there is something coming up really soon,
03:49which an agreement would be helpful for starting in April.
03:52UK citizens are going to have to apply for security preclearance
03:55in order to enter the EU and vice versa.
03:58EU citizens going to the UK.
04:00That'll cost 12 euros, that scheme.
04:04That's because both the EU and the UK are starting their preclearance schemes
04:07at that time.
04:08It's similar what the US has in place with ESTA, but the US exempts Canada.
04:13And so it would be logical for these two to exempt each other
04:15from these incoming schemes.
04:16And yet I'm told talks haven't even started on that,
04:19because this is again seen as a non-starter on the UK side.
04:22They're worried that even exempting the EU from this new scheme
04:26would look like free movement.
04:27So an extreme amount of cautious caution here.
04:31And it's hard to see where things go from here.