In the minds of those in the United Kingdom who supported leaving the European Union, “British fish” always meant more than just the ever-dwindling shoals of cod or haddock passing through the territorial waters of the United Kingdom. Complaints about fishermen from other EU shores coming “over here” and taking all the fish, in unfair deals overseen by evil Brussels, stood pars pro toto for the oh-so-terrible consequences proud Britannia, used to ruling the waves, had to suffer from having become an EU member.
Which is profoundly odd. According to a House of Commons Library research paper, the British fishing industry, such as it is, stands for 0.03 percent of British economic output. In the broader agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, its share is 5 percent. Still, the first three questions British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to answer from British journalists at the first-ever post-Brexit EU-UK summit were about the fish.
Late into the night, the British government had agreed to extend the existing access currently granted to EU fishery—an agreement made by arch-Brexiter Prime Minister Boris Johnson–for 12 years, until 2038; otherwise, it would have to be re-negotiated annually. In exchange, a permanent agreement between London and Brussels on food standards was cut, which will allow a return to more frictionless UK exports of agricultural products into the EU (where 72 percent of British fish end up). Hadn’t the prime minister “sold out” the fishermen, and thus the nation? Hadn’t he just made the UK a “rule-taker” again? Wasn’t he backsliding on Brexit?
“A New Era”
This is just an indication of how suspicious many in Britain, and certainly in a considerable part of its media, still are when it comes to dealing with the EU—even though the numbers of those who think that Brexit was a mistake have been rising steadily and those who think it was the right thing to do have been declining, modifying the 52-48 pro-Brexit referendum result of 2016 to something of a 35-65 divide.
Strangely, no British journalist asked about the British defense industry, which is about to get a boost; or about the wider international picture the long-awaited closer alignment between the UK and the EU in times of a brutal war in Europe and a weakening transatlantic relationship is taking place.
Starmer did his best to point out that the agreements that had been reached at the summit—a defense pact, called the Security and Defense Partnership, as well as a joint statement and a “Common Understanding” on a renewed agenda EU-UK cooperation, also called a “roadmap”—amounted to something bigger: the “starting of a new era of closer cooperation on a whole range of issues,” “a genuinely new chapter.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa did their bid to stress that the wish to move on was mutual: “This is about looking forward, not looking back,” Costa stressed.
An Achievement
After years of Conservative governments trying to ignore or stay away from the EU, the agreements mean, inter alia, that the British and the continental Europeans will see more of each other. Hence forth, the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, will hold foreign and security “policy dialogues” every six months, and the British prime minister and other ministers can look forward to invitations to high-level EU meetings, including European Councils.
There will also be an annual EU-UK dialogue on defense as well as deeper cooperation and information exchanges on space, cyber security, and Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.” Also, upon signing a “third party agreement,” the UK will get access to the €150 billion SAFE fund the EU is setting up to provide cheap loans for defense projects.
Beyond defense and security, there are commitments on the British side to “work toward” a youth mobility scheme as well as rejoining Erasmus+, the EU’s student exchange program. In turn, the EU sees “no legal barriers” to British nationals using e-gates at EU airports—all of which will make travel and people-to-people contacts easier again. There is also the ambition of relinking the EU’s and the UK’s emissions trading schemes again, which were severed by Brexit, as well as the energy markets.
On the Right Track
If managed well, this will indeed be the “win-win” Starmer promised. The British prime minister was also eager to put the agreements into the same context as the recent trade deals with the United States and India. However, what the Starmer government has achieved with US President Donald Trump’s erratic White House is not legally binding, and the UK-India agreement is supposed to reach a volume of GBP 5 billion by 2040, whereas the easing of trade in foodstuffs between the EU and the UK will mount to a volume of GBP 9 billion alone, the BBC reported.
“We need the UK back at the center of Europe,” former German ambassador to the UK and president of the German-British Association (Debrige), Thomas Mattusek, told an audience in Berlin last week, when marking the 80 years that have passed since the end of World War II. The first EU-UK summit has not achieved this, but the process is off to a good start.
The next step will likely be a British-German friendship treaty, already negotiated during the final months of the Scholz government, that will complete a triangle of intra-European special relationships between France, Germany, and the UK. It will not square the circle of the manifold problems arising from the UK’s choice to leave the EU, but a least in defense and security, it will help the UK to play a greater leadership role in European defense. Such leadership is urgently required.
Henning Hoff is executive editor of INTERNATIONALE POLITIK QUARTERLY.
