2024-08-31 13:59:25
Diplomacy
Scholz and Starmer want a fresh start
Updated on 28.08.2024Reading time: 3 min.
Just two months after taking office, Britain’s new Prime Minister is visiting Berlin. Keir Starmer wants a fresh start with Germany after Brexit. The Chancellor is optimistic.
Following the change of government in Great Britain around two months ago, Germany wants to place its relationship with the country that has left the EU on a new footing. To this end, a comprehensive agreement covering all areas of cooperation is to be signed at the beginning of next year, as announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the British head of government’s inaugural visit.
“I am delighted with Keir Starmer’s announcement that he will seek a new start in relations with the European Union. We want to take hold of this outstretched hand,” said Scholz. Starmer’s social democratic Labour Party belongs to the same European party family as Chancellor Scholz’s SPD. “There has never been such a treaty between Germany and the United Kingdom,” stressed Scholz.
The contract between the two countries is to be signed after planned government consultations, according to a joint statement on the project. The content of the agreement is to cover a wide range of topics. Both countries want to coordinate on security policy issues as well as on the prosecution of irregular migration. The agreement is also to cover economic cooperation.
Starmer spoke of an opportunity that only comes along once in a generation. “We want a fresh start,” said the new British head of government. He came to Germany for his inaugural visit after only about two months in office. His conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak had waited 18 months before making his inaugural visit to Berlin in April of this year. The two agreed on a joint declaration to deepen cooperation in the security and defense sectors.
The two countries now want to work out concrete cooperation in combating illegal migration, among other things. During the talks, they agreed to develop a joint action plan to tackle the issue, said Starmer. “Because we cannot break up the smuggling gangs without the help of our partners,” stressed the 61-year-old. To this end, they are also exchanging intelligence information.
In Great Britain, there are certainly questions about what the closer cooperation should look like. In fact, Starmer has ruled out many things that make a significantly closer relationship with the EU states difficult to achieve. A fresh start does not mean reversing Brexit or rejoining the single market or the EU customs union, Starmer stressed in Berlin.
The Prime Minister is also rejecting the idea of reversing the Brexit vote for strategic reasons. The fear of losing valuable votes seems to be too great within his Labour Party.
According to experts, the fact that Great Britain has no longer been part of the EU customs union and the single market since 2021 has severely damaged the domestic economy. Since then, despite a free trade agreement, there have been trade barriers, such as new tariffs and more bureaucracy. In surveys, around two-thirds of Britons are now in favor of returning to the EU.
Brexit has hit the exchange of knowledge and people hard, not least of all. For several years, employees, speakers and interns have needed expensive visas. “More contact between people and the areas of youth and education” are therefore explicitly planned for the planned German-British agreement. “Those who know each other well also understand each other better,” said Scholz.
To facilitate exchanges, the EU is pushing forward the idea of a Youth Mobility Scheme, like the one the UK already has with some non-EU countries. This would allow young people to live and work in the UK for a certain period of time without needing a visa.
But here too, Starmer is putting the brakes on. “We have no plans for a Youth Mobility Scheme, but we do have plans for a closer relationship,” he said.