Time to turn the page and reset the EU-UK partnership  

Thank you for the introduction. It is a pleasure to be here.
 
I have to say, in a world where everything is constantly being questioned, it is truly refreshing to be in a room where the value of European cooperation is understood. Who would have thought back in 2016 that I would be saying that to a room that is half filled with EU representatives and half filled with Brits? I think we’ve come a long way.
 
The message I bring with me today is the same one I took to London a few weeks ago.
 
This year, it will be ten years since Great Britain voted to leave the European Union. Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said that a week is a long time in politics. If that is true, then a decade is a lifetime – enough time to recognise that there is no alternative to a strong and constructive EU-UK relationship. And the shifts we’re seeing in our geopolitical landscape have only reinforced that belief. 
 
Now, for the first time in a decade, we’re seeing a willingness on both sides to reset our relationship. Reintroducing the European Union into the public debate in the United Kingdom required a great deal of political courage from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government – and I think we would do well to seize this moment. Not out of nostalgia for what was, but because of what is and what can be. This is a strategic imperative for both sides. And from where I stand, the opportunity before us is real.

I am not here today to negotiate on any one specific issue. That is Commissioner Šefčovič’s job, and he’s doing a pretty good one at that. But I do want to set-out how the European Parliament sees the broader development of this partnership moving forward.
 
The first and most important thing we must do is to take the emotion out of the discussion. We cannot keep turning every conversation about our relationship into an existential question, reducing it to the tired debate of whether the United Kingdom should rejoin or not. We have both been guilty of this, and we need to move away from that. 
 
I mean, just imagine if every time we discussed a policy change in the European Union, we immediately jumped to a debate on treaty change. We wouldn’t get very far either. We need to stop creating emotional barriers and find a way forward that respects the choice of the British people, but that can respond to today’s challenges in a realistic and pragmatic way. 
 
This is not a question of whether we are going for the ‘Swiss’ model or the ‘Norwegian’ model - I get asked this a lot. We need to be talking about a uniquely ‘British’ model. The United Kingdom is not any other third country. It is a former European Union Member and needs to be treated as such. 
 
The focus here should be on what works – and there’s a lot that already does. Take security and defence as an example. European cooperation through NATO has delivered for 76 years. When tensions rose over Greenland, our firm response helped de-escalate the situation. And thanks to our support - including through the Coalition of the Willing - Ukraine still stands strong. 
 
That is why the conclusion of the EU-UK Security and Defence Partnership at the first UK-EU Summit last year was an important step. It didn’t just show responsibility – it showed leadership. And for the European Parliament, that was only a starting point. 
 
There are many aspects in that agreement that we can - and must – continue to build on. There’s certainly room for cooperation in areas like joint procurement, cyber security and our Schengen Information System. But if we are serious about resetting our relationship, we need to start where our people and businesses can feel it most.
 
Yesterday, the UK and the EU signed a deal allowing Britain to rejoin Erasmus+. This is precisely the kind of cooperation that delivers tangible results that everybody can feel. It shows what is possible as we head towards the second EU-UK Summit. The way I see it, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement set the framework. But that does not mean our job is done. We still have a responsibility to lower costs and make people’s lives easier within that agreement. 
 
Brexit has clouded the regulatory landscape for businesses more than we care to admit. I recently met a CEO of a European company who chose to shut down operations in the UK rather than navigate the complexity. That is not a political statement. That is a practical reality. And it is precisely the type of situation we need to fix.
 
A Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, for example, would mean, in practical terms, fewer lorries stuck at the border. It would mean lower costs. Linking our carbon markets would give firms clearer rules before they commit to a new factory or upgrade a plant. And an agreement on energy and electricity would help guarantee an affordable, stable and predictable supply -   exactly what we need to power the shift towards Artificial Intelligence. 
 
The situation in the Strait of Hormuz makes this especially urgent. I was speaking with a constituent recently and I appreciate how plainly she put it. She said it is not enough to describe the situation anymore – what we need now are solutions. Solutions that will only work if the United Kingdom and the European Union pull on the same rope. I welcome the coalition that the United Kingdom and France are building to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. 
That is the type of teamwork we need more of – and yes, that includes in more contention points like steel imports and exports, fisheries and student mobility. This is the moment to tackle core issues and lay the foundations for lasting trust. 
 
Another area where cooperation makes sense, is in new - especially digital - technologies. Europe produces some of the world’s leading research on Artificial Intelligence. The United Kingdom has shown how to turn that into commercial success by building a very strong venture capital and start-up ecosystem. But the European Union’s market potential is enormous and should not be underestimated. It will grow even further once our Capital Markets Union and Digital Single Market are fully realised. My fear is that in a sector that is already being dominated by China and the United States, if we don’t scale together we will risk falling behind alone. 
 
Now of course, we have different structures and political dynamics – that is completely normal. I am also not going to pretend that the European Union is perfect – far from that. We have spent too long legislating on issues that, albeit well-intentioned, sometimes lost sight of the bigger picture. Over the past year, we’ve been recalibrating our focus. 
 
In fact, we are now in the middle of a major review of legislation to simplify rules. Next year, more than half of the files we’ll be working on will be geared towards this aim. I mentioned this earlier, but we are also working to reduce fragmentation across our capital markets, banking, digital and energy sectors. One proposal that we are particularly excited about is ‘EU Inc’ which will introduce a single set of corporate rules that will make it easier for companies to grow and do business in Europe. Parliament is committed to finalising this and the proposals on the Savings and Investments Union by the end of the year.
 
The same drive extends to the fields of security and defence. For the first time in history, EU NATO countries have pledged to raise defence spending to 5% of their GDP. In the past four years alone, EU defence spending has increased by more than 60%. 
 
That is just from a financing perspective. We are also doing more to cut unnecessary bureaucracy that makes production move faster. We are incentivising joint procurement. And we are ensuring troops and equipment can move quickly and safely across borders. Because over the years we have learnt that the difference between failure and success in this field often comes down to logistics.
 
At the Munich Security Conference, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Britain is not the one of the Brexit years anymore”. Neither is the European Union. We have turned the page on all of that. We understand that in a world that is more competitive and that is more unpredictable, neighbours who share the same values and interests do better when they work together. This is not about reopening old debates. It is about dealing with the world as it is. Grasping what is possible – and there really is a lot more possible today, that was not there yesterday, and that may not be there tomorrow. 
 
Thank you.