Labour’s proposed foreign policy and security pact with the EU sounds “quite promising”, the head of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee has said, adding that the British government should use the next weeks and months to come up with proposals that are “as concrete as possible”.
David McAllister, a veteran German MEP and close ally of European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said such a pact should cover economic, climate, health, cyber and energy security. His list overlaps with the sweeping set of ideas proposed by the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who recently met his counterparts in Berlin, Stockholm and Bydgoszcz in northern Poland.
Speaking to the Guardian before the European Political Community (EPC) summit that will bring together leaders from about 45 European countries at Blenheim Palace on Thursday, McAllister said: “We have always wanted closer post-Brexit security cooperation. At the moment we have as the EU more structured ties with the US, Canada and Norway than we do with the UK. So if David Lammy and [the defence secretary] John Healey are calling for a security pact with the EU, I think that this will be welcomed in Brussels.”
The EPC, proposed by France’s Emmanuel Macron, is not intended to discuss EU-UK relations, but it gives Keir Starmer a stage to showcase a new approach to the union. For the new government it is a powerful, symbolic moment. EU diplomats are glad to draw a line under the poisonous exchanges of the Brexit years, while saying relations had already improved with the signing of the Windsor framework agreement under Rishi Sunak.
“Hopefully this election result will allow us to build on the trust and progress already made with prime minister Sunak’s government,” said McAllister, a member of Germany’s centre-right CDU party who is widely expected to be confirmed for a fourth straight term as chair of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee next week. “One thing is clear: a period of calm, predictable and constructive diplomacy will be very beneficial for our bilateral partnership.”
Separately a senior EU official said there were “good vibes” from early contacts with the new British government and that any proposal on foreign and security cooperation “will be looked at with an open mind”.
The EU always wanted a foreign and security agreement with the UK but Boris Johnson abandoned this idea in his quest for a “Global Britain” foreign policy that shunned engagement with European institutions.
Brussels officials have no wish to reopen the post-Brexit deal signed with Johnson’s government, although they would like new agreements on youth mobility and fisheries when the current arrangements expire in 2026.
McAllister said he would like to see the UK “quickly rejoin” the Erasmus student exchange scheme and the two sides should “try and bring down as many barriers as possible for young people when it comes to mobility”.
The European parliament has only a limited role in foreign policy, but sets and reflects the EU agenda.
The EU has regular summits with Switzerland, Norway, Canada, New Zealand, China and Japan but no top-level gathering with its near neighbour across the Channel. Both London and Brussels are interested in having regular EU-UK summits.
McAllister said the two sides should have “regular strategic consultations at political level”, which he defined as invitations to the British prime minister to join EU heads of state and government, or the foreign secretary to meet his EU counterparts, on relevant agenda points.
However, he cautioned that the UK could not expect a permanent invitation to the EU’s monthly meetings of foreign affairs ministers. Lammy has been invited to the gathering in October – the next available slot – but officials have ruled out a standing invitation. “Absolutely not, it’s unthinkable,” a second EU official said.
While the bloc regularly invites non-EU guests to foreign minister meetings, the UK has only attended once, in March 2022, when Liz Truss as foreign secretary went to Brussels in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In what is likely to be music to Whitehall’s ears, McAllister suggested the UK could play a part in a nascent programme to increase European weapons and ammunition stocks, the European Defence Industry Programme. Traditionally, France has been influential in limiting defence programmes to EU companies.
Stressing that negotiations on EDIP has not been completed, McAllister said: “Of course it’s about buying European, but it’s not exclusively buying European. It’s about buying the best for our armed forces. And this is where I think the UK defence industry brings real added value for us.”
McAllister is a member of the Christian Democratic Union party, which is riding high in opinion polls, far ahead of the three governing parties in the chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular coalition.
The CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, recently told the FT that continental Europeans could have done more to help the UK come to a different referendum result in 2016. Asked about these comments, McAllister struck a different note, suggesting the UK would always be more special than a typical non-EU country.
“Brexit has happened … I believe that we have to make the best out of this situation, and try to have the best possible cooperation with the UK, which will never be [just] a third country for us … but an important trading partner, a rock-solid Nato ally and a neighbour,” he said.
“Germany has, in particular, a vested interest in integrating the UK into European security and defence cooperation,” he added, welcoming the commitments in the Labour and Conservative election manifestos for increased defence and security cooperation with his country.
The EU-UK trade deal will be reviewed in 2025 and McAllister said supplementary agreements “very much depend on the UK side to present the proposals”, reflecting the Brussels consensus that Britain has to make the first move.
Asked why the EU could not present proposals, McAllister said: “Until now, the EU has dealt with UK governments who weren’t always 100% clear what they actually wanted.”
