Brussels lowers its expectations for Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset – POLITICO

Thomas-Symonds, who at the same committee hearing accepted that the “steep part” of negotiations had not yet begun, will also be in Brussels next week, speaking alongside his EU counterpart Maroš Šefčovič at Tuesday’s annual U.K–EU Forum conference. One U.K. official said the minister’s address to the conference would focus on how the government would “only do things that are in the national interest.”

European diplomats are conveying their frustrations with Britain’s stance to contacts back in the U.K. One British person who speaks regularly to the EU institutions said: “If you talk to anyone in Europe, they ask — ‘what do you actually want’?” A second asked of the Cabinet Office’s unit for European relations: “What are they actually doing?”

U.K. officials argue it is natural that some ambassadors and foreign ministers will not know the full details of discussions because, they say, they are taking place directly with the Commission.

Nurturing and watering

The senior EU diplomat quoted above warns not to expect an “epiphany” from Starmer’s attendance on Monday — but said it is an important staging post for the renewed relationship nonetheless.

“A lot of people would like things to happen immediately. That said, that’s not how the world of international relations often works, nor the world of politics,” they told POLITICO, adding: “I think we actually are seeing progress.”

The diplomat pointed to the recent appointment of British negotiator Michael Ellam and a planned full-fat U.K.-EU summit later in the spring as signs that change was in the air — however slow and limited in scope.

As for those earlier high expectations? Perhaps it was necessary to adopt a “much more pragmatic approach to where the [U.K.-EU] relationship is going,” they said.

“There is a growing awareness that this is a plant that needs nurturing and watering and that we are gradually going in that direction.”