Sir Keir Starmer cannot be handed a “free lunch” if he wants a a so-called relations reset with the EU, the bloc’s leaders have warned – with migration high on the European agenda.
Ahead of the PM’s visit to Brussels today to get the ball rolling on a new post-Brexit deal, continental bigwigs are understood to have demanded British concessions on migration, fishing and youth mobility as trade-offs for the “reset”.
On fishing, the bloc is set to demand longer-term access to Britain’s waters for Europe’s fishing fleet – which it currently only has up to 2026.
While on migration, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is expected to ask Starmer to start talks on a new migrant returns deal – which could see Britain told to accept quotas of asylum seekers from the continent.
As the UK grapples with a rising migrant crisis, VDL is set to push for the UK to align with the EU’s new asylum pact
PA
Brussels has also urged the PM to agree to a new youth mobility scheme – like what the UK enjoys with countries including Australia and Japan – while in return, Starmer is pushing to boost growth back in Britain by reducing checks and paperwork on a number of UK exports.
One EU diplomat said: “We have offensive interests on youth mobility and fisheries that must not be neglected”, while another added: “No free lunches or cherry picking.”
A UK Government source, The Times reports, said they expected Von der Leyen to raise the EU’s demands in her meeting with Starmer on Wednesday, but counselled that more detailed negotiations would not begin for a “couple of months” yet.
“This is about establishing whether there is a way to move forward in good faith,” they said.
MORE ON THE MIGRANT CRISIS:
Ursula von der Leyen is set to push for the UK to align with the EU’s new asylum pact
PA
“They know what our red lines are on the customs union, single market and freedom of movement – but the hope is that we can build better relations across a range of areas where it is in our mutual interests to do so.”
But as the UK grapples with a rising migrant crisis, VDL is set to push for the UK to align with the EU’s new asylum pact – which will see member states resettling an annual quota of asylum seekers across the bloc, starting with a minimum of 30,000 per year.
EU leaders believe Starmer’s Britain is “favourable” to the new rules that would allow the UK to return some small boat migrants to the continent for the first time since Brexit.
In return, Britain would be told to take some of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who enter Europe each year. It would also require Britain to agree a legal route for asylum seekers to come to Britain from Europe, including residency rights for their families.
Starmer’s Cabinet have consistently ruled out agreeing migrant quotas with the EU
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Starmer’s Cabinet has consistently ruled out agreeing migrant quotas with the EU – but Brussels will be looking for a precondition for negotiations.
A Government source said: “It’s a negotiation… We’ll be looking for a narrow returns agreement where we’d potentially explore an option for family reunion.
“It could be with one country or where we could return some people and potentially take unaccompanied children who have family in the UK.”
