UK and EU leaders and officials will be congregating in London on 19 May for what has been described as a landmark ‘reset’ summit.
Ahead of the event, we spoke to the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade’s international and EU director, Fergus McReynolds, about what the UK-EU summit is and what we should expect from it.
Fergus will be speaking alongside David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political Economy, at a free LinkedIn Live event on 14 May previewing the summit. You can sign up to the event for free here.
What is the UK-EU summit?
Business groups, including ourselves, have been calling for the two parties to get together at summits and it’s important to put into context that the May summit will be first in a series of five annual events, over the course of the mandate of this European Commission.
Summits like these are important because they create the opportunity for the two parties to discuss, at a political leader-to-leader level, priorities and common objectives. It will be a chance to take stock of where the relationship is and to set the agenda for how to continue to improve it.
This summit, as the first in the series, will conclude the process of ‘resetting’ the relationship to a point where the two parties can set out what priorities it will work on.
Members of the Chartered Institute can read more of Fergus’ commentary on the reset of the UK-EU relationship here.
What are we likely to see at the summit?
There’s quite a lot of crystal ball gazing taking place at the moment but, given it’s the first in a series, it’s to be expected that any announcements will likely be iterative, with further developments to come at future summits. We’re not going to see answers to all the challenges both sides have set out at this event.
That said, we’re starting to see the shape emerge of what could be announced. A priority on both sides is to agree a security and defence partnership. There will be plenty of discussion and potentially a conclusion on that.
We’re also hearing that there will be discussions over how the two parties can work together on irregular migration. This is certainly a core priority for the European Commission, as it sets out its border agenda and how members address migration. There will also be discussions over how the two can improve cooperation on energy and carbon trading systems.
The fourth priority will be the economic relationship and the commitments both Maros Sefcovic and Nick Thomas-Symmonds have made in discussions over the last six months. They’re committed to removing unnecessary barriers to trade and the crux of these discussions will be ascertaining what each side views as being ‘unnecessary’.
It’s been reported that the UK and EU will make a declaration of their shared commitment to ‘open and free trade’. Why is this important?
That both parties are restating their individual and common commitments to ensuring open and free trade, in an environment where that is being continuously challenged, is to be welcomed.
Recent decades have seen a drive towards global trade liberalisation; this is now being turned on its head and you’re starting to see increasing fractures in the global system.
Causes for this have included the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and now the political forces that are moving to question the previous orthodox position that trade is good for both the exporting and importing country. We are certainly seeing that with the US’ trade policy this year, with the US president clearly seeing trade as a zero sum game.
A commitment from both the UK and EU to open and free trade, as something that brings benefits to both partners and in their relationship to each other, is really important. It’s also at the core of what we do at the Chartered Institute, which is about empowering international trade, recognising the value it brings to businesses, making them more profitable, sustainable and successful.
How can members of the Chartered Institute stay informed about the UK-EU summit and any developments that take place around it?
Our commitment is to keep members updated on all developments and we’ll do that through our Daily Update newsletter, social media channels, our webinars and our wider events programme.
This begins with our free event on LinkedIn on 14 May, where experts on UK-EU relations will discuss what we think the landing zone will be for talks at the summit and what the benefits will be, particularly focussing on the trade and economic relationship.
We will also explain to members what actually gets agreed at the summit. We’re not expecting improvements to the trade relationship being announced at the summit, but we are expecting to see workstreams launched to explore different areas to work on.
We will be running an exclusive webinar for members, with the UK Deputy Ambassador to the EU, on 20 May to keep them updated on these workstreams and how they can work with us to feed into these conversations.
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