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Sir Keir Starmer kicked off efforts to agree a new treaty with Germany as he held talks in Berlin with Chancellor Olaf Scholz as part of his bid to reset Britain’s ties with the EU.
At a joint press conference, Scholz said that the two countries wanted “to base our relations on an entirely new footing” with “a treaty that reflects the entire spectrum of our relations”.
Starmer said: “We have a once in a generation opportunity to reset our relationship with Europe . . . We must turn a corner on Brexit and fix the broken relationships left behind by the previous government.”
The prime minister hopes Wednesday morning’s meeting will help reboot the UK’s relationship with the EU after 14 years of strained and sometimes tempestuous relations under the Conservatives.
London wants to agree a treaty on deeper economic ties, energy security and the environment with Berlin in six months.
Last month the two countries issued a declaration on defence, setting out priorities including joint procurement and interoperability and co-ordination on supporting Ukraine and emerging threats.
While Brussels and London have also been in on-off talks over closer defence and security ties since the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the EU, some in the UK would prefer to focus instead on bilateral ties with major EU military powers such as Germany.
The Labour government says it wants to improve the UK’s access to trade with Europe, following what it characterises as Boris Johnson’s “botched” Brexit deal.
But Starmer has ruled out re-entering the EU’s customs union or single market and Brussels has signalled it has little appetite to reopen full-blown trade negotiations.
At the Berlin press conference, Starmer said the UK wanted to boost “exchanges” with the EU, but repeated his insistence that Britain did “not have plans” for a new youth mobility scheme with the bloc.
The UK prime minister is scheduled to continue to Paris on Wednesday night where he will attend the Paralympics opening ceremony, before visiting the Élysée Palace on Thursday.
Although Starmer has been in office barely two months, the trip marks his fifth meeting with Scholz and his fourth with French President Emmanuel Macron since he became prime minister, a sign of his drive to bolster relations with key European allies.
Downing Street likened the new partnership sought by London and Berlin to the 2010 Lancaster House agreement between the UK and France to deepen defence and security co-operation.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is the UK’s second-biggest trading partner, accounting for 8.5 per cent of all UK trade.
Starmer is hosting an international investment summit in October and will seek to use his two-day European tour to build links with businesses.
In Berlin, Starmer is meeting the chief executives of Siemens Energy and Rheinmetall, Germany’s biggest defence company, while in Paris he will meet executives at technology company Thales, satellite operator Eutelsat, and pharmaceutical and healthcare company Sanofi.
The new Labour administration is also prioritising trade deals with a six-strong group of Gulf countries and India, with ministers aiming to restart negotiations this autumn.
On Tuesday, Starmer met Bahraini Prime Minister Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa at Downing Street in a bid to boost inward investment from the Gulf.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels
