EU-UK defense deal in sight at May summit

LONDON — Britain and the European Union are closing in on a new defense pact, which they hope to sign next month. But it all depends on fish.

EU ambassadors met in Brussels on Friday to prepare for the next major Brexit milestone — a long-awaited London summit on May 19.

“The general sense there was that a defense and security pact is feasible and desirable,” an EU diplomat familiar with the preparatory meeting told POLITICO, adding that there was an “expectation” that the accord would be agreed at the May summit.

Both sides are also expected to use next month's meeting to reach a “common understanding” of which issues will be tackled under Prime Minister Keir Starmer's wider Brexit reset — which has so far been lacking in policy detail.

That could pave the way for negotiations on U.K. objectives like an agri-food standards agreement to reduce trade bureaucracy, as well as EU plans like improved mobility for young people and students.

London and Brussels will also pen a separate joint declaration on “global issues” at the conference — which could lay out common ground on topics such as the war in Ukraine or the global trading system, according to two EU officials with knowledge of preparations for the summit.

But progress on the security pact in particular is expected to be dependent on the U.K.'s guaranteeing continued access for EU fishing fleets in its waters — a key demand of coastal member states like France and Denmark, who fear being cut out when a Brexit fisheries transition period ends in June 2026.

“Any progress on a security and defense agreement is linked to progress on fisheries,” one of the EU officials told POLITICO.

The EU diplomat, quoted above, said the security agreement would have to “go hand in hand with fisheries.” They were granted anonymity to speak freely about the ongoing negotiations.

A U.K. government spokesperson said: “A closer, more cooperative relationship with the EU will improve the British people’s security, safety and prosperity.

“We will act in Britain’s national interest and we have been clear there will be no return to freedom of movement, the customs union or the single market. We will not provide a running commentary on talks.”

Defense fund

A new security pact with Brussels is a key plank of Starmer’s foreign policy strategy in light of moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to distance himself from European security.

Brussels has proposed a €150 billion loan program for EU governments to spend on re-arming. The funds should be invested on a “buy-more-European” basis, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. 

But without a formal defense agreement with Brussels, the U.K. will be locked out of the scheme.

The plans to link fisheries to defense fly in the face of what U.K. Fisheries Minister Daniel Zeichner told a parliamentary committee last week. His message to lawmakers was clear: “no linkage” between different policy areas.

British EU Affairs Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has however indicated that he's ready to talk. The Cabinet Office, the U.K. government department which manages Starmer's Brexit reset, has been approached for comment.

EU officials said the May meeting would also address the topic of energy, which like fishing faces a post-Brexit cliff edge in June 2026 when current electricity trading arrangements expire. The energy industry says the current trading system is poor, however, and wants both sides to agree to closer integration.

Starmer pledged in Labour's manifesto to negotiate a security agreement with the bloc — plugging a hole left in former PM Boris Johnson's Brexit deal that has grown in salience amid rising global tensions.

He has also promised to reset relations with Brussels — which were often stormy under his Tory predecessors. While both sides have for months celebrated improved mood music since the U.K. general election, little concrete policy detail has been agreed, with all hopes pinned on the May summit.