Britain's Starmer in Brussels to flesh out EU 'reset' pledge

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00:00British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on his first visit to Brussels.

00:03He's conceded his much-vaulted reset with the EU will not be easy,

00:08despite improved mood music between the two sides

00:11after the rancour of Brexit.

00:13Starmer holding talks with the European Commission chief,

00:16Ursula von der Leyen, as his Labour government seeks a fresh start

00:19with the 27-nation bloc after ousting the Conservatives in July.

00:24We're going to cross to Brussels,

00:25talk to our correspondent who joins us from there, Dave Keating.

00:28Dave, how well did this go for Keir Starmer?

00:31It's been a long time coming

00:33and he's been pushing various different measures, hasn't he?

00:39Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say whether this went according to plan

00:42for Starmer because no one's really sure what the plan is.

00:46So since being elected, Starmer has said he wants a reset in UK-EU relations,

00:51which, of course, were very bad during the previous Conservative government.

00:55And the EU has been happy to hear that.

00:57However, he hasn't really come out with anything tangible

01:00in terms of ideas for how to change the post-Brexit relationship.

01:05And in fact, he's maintained the same red lines

01:08as the previous Conservative government, as Boris Johnson.

01:11So he said no alignment with EU law, no entering the single market,

01:15no joining a customs union and no free movement.

01:18And that has really tied his hands in terms of what he can actually

01:22get changed in terms of the relationship.

01:25So when he exited the building here behind me, the Berlaymont EU headquarters,

01:29he really didn't have anything.

01:31So after this meeting with President von der Leyen,

01:34they agreed only to hold more meetings.

01:36They agreed to have a regular UK-EU meetings starting early next year.

01:41Believe it or not, that is minimal progress because that's something

01:44that the previous Conservative government wouldn't even agree to.

01:48But on the EU side, they're growing increasingly impatient here.

01:52They have offered something that they say wouldn't violate

01:55Starmer's red lines, which is this youth mobility pact,

01:59which would allow British students to study in EU countries for up to four years

02:03without having to get a student visa and vice versa for EU students going to the UK.

02:08But the Starmer government has rejected that out of hand.

02:11They feel that it would look to the British public too much like free movement.

02:16Of course, it's not free movement.

02:18The students have to go back after four years.

02:20And the UK has similar agreements in place with Australia and Canada.

02:23But it shows just how much the optics are driving here.

02:26Starmer is afraid of losing those so-called red wall voters,

02:30the Labour voters who voted for Brexit in 2016,

02:33but then came back to Labour this July.

02:36So very much you can see how cautious the Starmer government is being here.

02:41The problem is time is kind of running out and the EU's patience here isn't inexhaustible.

02:46Yeah, it does sound like there are still an awful lot of problems to overcome, Dave.

02:51Yeah, that's for sure.

02:53I mean, the point to really stress here is all of the Brexit pain hasn't even hit yet.

02:57The UK hasn't fully implemented the divorce deal.

03:00They've delayed applying customs rules to goods coming from the EU.

03:05And Brexit has already significantly hurt the British economy.

03:09And more pain is is set to come.

03:11And President von der Leyen stressed this when she was speaking next to Starmer

03:14here yesterday, when she said before we can talk about any future relationship,

03:18the UK needs to fully implement the existing divorce deal.

03:23Now, Starmer wants to tinker with that, but first they actually have to apply it.

03:27And this you see the anxiety here within Starmer's cabinet,

03:30because the people who are in charge of the economy

03:33are really pushing Starmer to drop those red lines,

03:36to try to tangibly change the trading relationship.

03:39But the people in charge of internal affairs and migration,

03:43they're very worried about the optics of being seen to cave in to the EU.

03:47Now, there is something coming up really soon,

03:49which an agreement would be helpful for starting in April.

03:52UK citizens are going to have to apply for security preclearance

03:55in order to enter the EU and vice versa.

03:58EU citizens going to the UK.

04:00That'll cost 12 euros, that scheme.

04:04That's because both the EU and the UK are starting their preclearance schemes

04:07at that time.

04:08It's similar what the US has in place with ESTA, but the US exempts Canada.

04:13And so it would be logical for these two to exempt each other

04:15from these incoming schemes.

04:16And yet I'm told talks haven't even started on that,

04:19because this is again seen as a non-starter on the UK side.

04:22They're worried that even exempting the EU from this new scheme

04:26would look like free movement.

04:27So an extreme amount of cautious caution here.

04:31And it's hard to see where things go from here.

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