Rachel Reeves’ push to improve EU ties remains boxed in by red lines
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Chancellor’s visit to EU meeting looks for smoother trade to improve growth but youth mobility scheme remains sticking point. Rachel Reeves is seeking a “deeper, more mature relationship” between Britain and the EU: this was her central message to the bloc’s finance ministers in Brussels a fortnight ago.
![[Heather Stewart Economics editor]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2024/11/15/Heather_Stewart,_L.png?width=180&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In her brief speech to the meeting of her European counterparts – the first a UK chancellor had attended since Brexit – Reeves mentioned the UK’s “relationship” with the EU, nine times. As well as deeper and more mature, she wants it to be closer, stronger, “mature [again] and businesslike” and, “built on trust, mutual respect, and pragmatism”.
Little concrete detail emerged from Reeves’s Brussels jaunt; but when a chancellor repeats the same message nine times, it is worth taking note. With the economy stagnating, Labour sources say Reeves is increasingly driving the effort to lower trade barriers with the EU – led formally from the Cabinet Office by Nick Thomas-Symonds.
Mujtaba Rahman, of consultancy Eurasia Group, a keen analyst of the twists and turns of government Brexit policy, says: “I think there’s a growing realisation, in the Treasury and beyond, that smoother trade with the EU is one of the few levers they can pull to improve growth over the medium-term.”.
As well as seeking ways to deliver improved economic outcomes, the chancellor also hopes to placate business leaders, who remain grumpy about her budget tax raid. And our new man in Washington, Lord Mandelson, as a former EU trade commissioner, is likely to be acutely aware of possible clashes between anything the UK might offer Donald Trump and the prospects for an EU reset.
