The U.K. and the EU hail a new chapter as they ink fresh deals, 5 years after Brexit

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, kisses European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she arrives with European Council President Antonio Costa to attend a United Kingdom and European Union summit at Lancaster House, London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP) (Carl Court/AP)

LONDON — Britain and the European Union hailed a new chapter in their relationship Monday after sealing fresh agreements on defence cooperation and easing trade flows at their first formal summit since Brexit.

Five years after the U.K. left the EU, ties were growing closer again as Prime Minister Keir Starmer met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials in London for talks.

The deals will slash red tape, grow the British economy and reset relations with the 27-nation trade bloc, Starmer said, while von der Leyen called the talks a “historic moment” that benefits both sides.

“Britain is back on the world stage,” Starmer told reporters. “This deal is a win-win.”

He hailed Monday’s agreements — the third package of trade deals struck by his government in as many weeks following accords with the U.S. and India — as “good for jobs, good for bills and good for our borders.”

But Britain’s opposition parties slammed the deals as backtracking on Brexit and “surrendering” anew to the EU. “We’re becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again,” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said.

Here are the main takeaways from the summit:

Cutting red tape on food trade

Officials said they will remove some routine border checks on animal and plant products and align with EU regulations, which will reduce costs on food imports and exports and make it easier for goods to flow freely across borders.

Businesses have complained about trucks waiting for hours at borders with fresh food that cannot be exported to the EU because of laborious post-Brexit certifications.

The changes will mean the U.K. can sell products like raw British burgers, sausages and seafood to the EU again, officials said. The benefits will apply also to movements between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, where post-Brexit customs checks have been a thorny issue for years.

While the EU is the U.K.’s largest trading partner, the government said the U.K. has been hit with a 21% drop in exports since Brexit because of more onerous paperwork and other non-tariff barriers.

Defence procurement pact

A new security and defence partnership will pave the way for the U.K. defence industry to access a new EU loan program worth 150 billion euros (US$170 billion.) That will allow Britain to secure cheap loans backed by the EU budget to buy military equipment, in part to help Ukraine defend itself.

The EU has said that the loan program will help boost the readiness of European defense as well as enable more coordinated support for Ukraine.

Fishing rights

The deal included a 12-year extension of an agreement allowing EU fishing vessels to operate in U.K. waters until 2038, which angered U.K. fishermen and their supporters.

While economically minor, fishing has long been a sticking point and symbolically important issue for the U.K. and EU member states such as France. Disputes over the issue nearly derailed a Brexit deal back in 2020.

Elspeth Macdonald, head of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, called the agreement a “horror show for Scottish fishermen” that was granted in order to secure other objectives. Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the deal was “the direct opposite of what was promised by Brexit.”

Easing movement for young people

Post-Brexit visa restrictions have hobbled cross-border activities for professionals such as bankers or lawyers, as well as academic and cultural exchanges, including touring bands.

The U.K. and EU said they agreed to co-operate on a youth mobility plan that’s expected to allow young Britons and Europeans to live and work temporarily in each other’s territory, though no details were provided.

British officials insisted that numbers would be capped and stays would be time-limited.

The free movement of people remains a politically touchy issue in the U.K., with the youth mobility plan seen by some Brexiteers as inching back toward completely free movement for EU nationals to move to the U.K. The U.K. has similar youth mobility arrangements with countries including Australia and Canada.

Cutting airport waits

British passport holders will be able to use e-gates at more European airports as part of the deal.

Since Brexit, many British travelers cannot use automated gates when they arrive at EU airports. The new measure will end “the dreaded queues at border control,” officials said.

Opposition objects to a ‘surrender’

Britain’s opposition parties have criticized Starmer’s bid to reset relations with the EU. The pro-Brexit and anti-immigration Reform U.K. party, which recently won big in local elections, and the Conservatives have called the trade-offs in the deals a betrayal of Brexit.

Starmer is “taking us backwards. We left the European Union. That was settled, we drew a line under that,” said Badenoch, the Conservative leader. “This deal is taking us to the past and that is why we call it surrender.”

Starmer stressed that he did not violate his “red lines”: The U.K. won’t rejoin the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union, and will not agree to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the EU.

David Henig, a U.K. trade policy expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, suggested that while some will continue to argue against agreeing to EU regulations, most Britons likely believe it’s time to move forward.

“Simply following EU rules in some areas is going to be controversial to those who thought that Brexit means casting off all influence from the EU entirely,” he said. “That wasn’t realistic for a trading nation like the U.K., where 50% of our trade is with the EU.”

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By Sylvia Hui

Pan Pylas and Jill Lawless in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed reporting.