Keir Starmer eyeing up five priorities in Brexit ‘reset’ talks with EU | Politics | News

Since taking office in July, Sir Keir Starmer has said that a “reset” between the UK and EU is high on his list of priorities.

The PM has already met with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, and the Remainer PM also met the German at the United Nations in New York.

As part of the reset, Sir Keir and his Government may sign the UK back up to various European schemes, that were ditched after the vote to leave in June 2016.

Express.co.uk looks at which schemes Brussels and Downing Street may alight upon, and what rejoining them may mean for Brits.

Cross-border youth mobility

After leaving the EU, the UK left the Erasmus student exchange scheme. The UK Government hasn’t ruled out rejoining it, but a firm commitment is yet to be made.

The scheme, which allows students to study overseas in participating countries, raises concerns about a new route for people to migrate to the UK.

It has been reported that negotiators offered a four-year residency permit concession, to ease concerns over Erasmus student migration. However, it’s also believed that Brussels negotiators are wary not to push the UK too hard over the issue, given the Government’s pressure to reduce migration.

EU Creative Europe programme

Britain may be pulled back into the scheme which between 2014 and 2018 awarded £74.2m to UK creative institutions. It’s worth noting that during this period the UK contributed tens of billions of pounds into EU coffers, as a net contributor to the bloc.

Nevertheless, the Scottish Government has called on the UK to rejoin the programme and the devolved Welsh government wants to rejoin too.

How the UK could rejoin, given it no longer contributes to EU funding, is unclear. However, third countries are eligible to join the scheme, so it is possible the UK could strike a similar deal non-EU nations have agreed upon.

Galileo satellite scheme

Science Secretary Peter Kyle told this website in August that the Government was now “actively exploring” rejoining the £9bn scheme.

The UK stopped collaborating with EU scientists in 2021, when the final project the UK was involved in was completed.

Mr Kyle said that Labour had a “priority of rebuilding relationships”, adding: “We are extremely open-minded and ambitious for what we can achieve by finding areas of mutual benefit that will have economic and scientific opportunities for Britain without having major sovereignty impacts as well.”

Iris2 space programme

The EU’s Iris2 space programme is supposed to rival Elon Musk‘s Starlink system, which provides broadband connectivity to more than 100 countries.

The EU claimed that Iris2 was a “significant step towards Europe’s sovereignty and secure connectivity” which would provide satellite coverage from eastern European states to Ireland.

As it stands, the UK is not involved in the programme, but that doesn’t mean the Government can’t contribute funding.

However, senior EU officials told The Guardian that they had “not received any sign or manifestation of interest from our UK partners”.

Data roaming

Roaming charges were reintroduced for UK residents in the EU in 2021. However, not all provided passed them on.

The UK doesn’t currently enjoy the EU’s “roam like home” policy, which is only open to member states.

However, the UK could still strike a deal on data roaming without joining the bloc’s single market. This would be a potential major coup for UK travellers and something within his reach at the negotiating table in Brussels.