The United Kingdom’s prime minister began a two-day visit to Germany and France on Wednesday with high hopes of resetting his country’s difficult relationship with some of its nearest neighbors.
Keir Starmer started his trip by meeting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s head of state, before holding key talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The UK leader was set to move on to France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
Starmer, who became the UK’s prime minister in July after the Labour Party swept to power in a general election, described his visit as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset our relationship with Europe”.
“We must turn a corner on Brexit and fix the broken relationships left behind by the previous government,” he said, in reference to the UK’s 2020 exit from the European Union.
He added that he hoped the UK would be able to achieve “genuine, ambitious partnerships” with Germany and France “that deliver for the British people”.
And he noted that strengthening the UK’s relationship with Germany and France would be “crucial, not only in tackling the global problem of illegal migration, but also in boosting economic growth across the continent and, crucially, in the UK”.
New deal proposed
A proposed partnership with Germany was the major issue on the table on Wednesday.
The deal, which is likely to be finalized next year, would call for more cooperation in trade, defense, and illegal migration, and could go some way toward restoring the close cooperation the countries enjoyed when the UK was a member of the EU.
A spokesperson for the UK government told the BBC the deal would also cover other areas where increased collaboration would be beneficial, including market access for companies, cooperation in science and technology, and partnerships in clean energy, supply-chain resilience, and biodiversity.
Nils Schmid, a foreign affairs spokesman for Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the two leaders are in broad agreement on how UK-EU relations should look in the years ahead.
“There is a constant push by the German government to bring the UK closer to Europe and to facilitate cooperation between Great Britain and the European Union in as many fields as possible, ranging from trade to student mobility rights to defense,” Schmid told the broadcaster.
“And then, of course, there’s also the idea of not only preparing the ground for an EU-UK agreement, but also to strengthen the bilateral ties between Germany and Great Britain.”
One part of a future deal between the countries could include easier cross-border access for young people, Schmid added.
Starmer and Scholz have met several times since Starmer came to power, including at a NATO summit in the United States and at the European Political Community summit in England, both in July.
After leaving Germany, Starmer was expected to attend the opening ceremony of the Paris Paralympics on Wednesday evening.
He was also expected to meet representatives from Siemens Energy and Rheinmetall and investors from Thales, Eutelsat, Mistral AI and Sanofi during the trip.
