The EU has said Keir Starmer’s upcoming summit “resetting” the UK-Europe relationship may still happen in July, amid growing fears it could be postponed to the autumn as talks over youth mobility remain deadlocked.
“The summit is supposed to be mid-July but at the moment it could be put back to after the summer,” said one EU diplomat.
“There is common concern that momentum is being lost. Negotiations always continue until the moment the clock stops and then you have a text the next morning, but because there is no deadline, the pressure is off,” the source added.
Speaking at a conference in Brussels, the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, said: “I believe that still the expectation is that we would have the summit, most probably in July.”
Asked if talks were deadlocked on a scheme to allow under-30s to travel freely on a three-year visa scheme for youth, he said it was one of the top three issues, and one that EU ministers cared deeply about.
Describing a recent meeting of 27 European ministers, he said: “When we were discussing the relationship with the UK, 20 ministers took the floor and said how the youth experience is important for them. So I think this is something what I see as an investment into the future.”
Šefčovič added that his second daughter studied in the UK, “she has all the university friends from there, she speaks much better English than I do, she can do the British accent excellently”.
His personal interest is reflected widely around governments in Europe, meaning it is turning into something of a red line for EU leaders.
The UK business secretary, Peter Kyle, who had an hour-long meeting with Šefčovič in Brussels on Friday, said: “We are very aware of the strength of feeling” about youth mobility but a deal had to be “respectful” for both sides.
The annual summit, the second of its kind since Brexit, was originally due to be held in May, exactly a year after the first, when Starmer and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, met in Lancaster House in Westminster.
But with talks over a youth experience scheme and a veterinary deal taking longer than anticipated, 29 June was pencilled in for this year’s summit, according to sources.
That has now shifted to a tentative date of 13 July and there is speculation it may move again.
Kyle described his meeting with Šefčovič as “positive” and full of “hope and optimism” in trying to nail a deal on three areas – youth mobility, food and drink red tape and carbon emissions.
Asked why there was still no date for the summit, Kyle said: “We’ve never set a date for it, but it’s incoming … we are throwing our heart and soul into this reset.”
He added: “We are just determined that this summit, each time we do run these summits, is a big step forward. We’re not just always looking over our shoulder just to think ‘what did we do last time?’.”
Four EU sources said talks were still deadlocked over the EU’s insistence that its citizens studying in the UK under the scheme pay “home” tuition fees. The UK wants to cap numbers of EU citizens coming to the UK at between 40,000 and 50,000 a year.
One EU source accused the UK of trying to introduce new issues. “The UK keep wanting to link the youth mobility scheme to other things,” they said.
Kyle said on Friday there were also issues for the British side, including business mobility.
One EU diplomat complained about the secrecy of talks, which they said meant leading politicians could not give the help they wanted to expedite a deal.
“We are aligned on values, we miss them, we want them back and we want to help them but they are very difficult to help when we do not know what their plan is,” said the diplomat. “We struggle a bit with the Brits because we don’t know their plan, their vision.”
Kyle told the conference that the relationship had “healed” and relations could be closer after the summit but the UK had to take account of voters’ concerns about migration when it came to any youth mobility.
“The way to win over the British people is to show that the EU delivers for British people wherever you live in the country,” he said. “If we can get those two things right from both sides then I think we have a really fantastic future.”