Keir Starmer is not a man for visionary speeches. It is one of the criticisms most often levelled against him. When he does try to present grand plans, he always seems uneasy, and the government’s communication machine has difficulty finding ways of presenting progress in a manner that appeals to the media. His characteristic mode is to identify a problem, and then take small steps to resolve it. And Europhiles are suspicious of the man who championed Remain yet now insists there will be no return to EU membership. But quietly, things are changing.
Despite his determination not to consider a return to EU membership or the single market, Starmer has been quietly working on the relationships. As leader of the Opposition, and now Prime Minister, Starmer has spent a lot of time talking to European leaders about ways of working together, slowly narrowing the gaps, without alarming the noisy minority of passionate Brexiters in the UK, and without making big demands on Europeans, which they may be reluctant to contemplate. And despite the historic fondness of some European politicians for grand visionary speeches, Starmer’s approach fits well with many in Brussels.
Boring regulations
As always, much of the work of the EU is concerned with a constant evolution of detailed regulation. Every one of those regulations matters to someone: a group of businesses or citizens who get new rights, protections or burdens. But they are mostly highly technical, and difficult for most journalists to follow. So, they remain below the horizon even for those with a real interest in UK EU relations.
This is why the work of the Britain in a Changing Europe thinktank (UKICE) is so important. Ever since Brexit they have been tracking every change in regulations on both sides, monitoring where we are pulling apart and where we remain in lockstep, and reporting the results. They have just published their first report on this since the change of government, and for Europhiles it has some encouraging messages.
A change of direction
This is their summary of the position:
“In lots of small ways, the direction has been to close the gaps. There are already signs of a markedly changed approach to managing divergence. The pursuit of active divergence (where the UK moves away from the EU rulebook) has all but dried up, with just one case of active divergence in this tracker having been first initiated by the Labour government. Instead, the new government’s focus has been on delaying existing divergence (five cases) and laying the groundwork for active alignment with EU rules (two cases).”
Some of the changes in the chart were made under the previous government, and even where there is apparent divergence, there are opportunities for alignment. UKICE highlights the UK’s Product Regulation and Metrology (PRM) Bill, now in the House of Lords, which allows the government to replicate EU regulations relating to the environmental impacts of products. The Bill’s explicit purpose is to avoid divergence which could create new costs for business, lead to UK standards ‘falling behind’ the EU’s, or negatively affect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s own internal market. Already, this principle is being adopted, with a proposal to replicate EU rules making USB-C chargers mandatory for electronic devices (something which will be welcomed by anyone with a drawer full of electronic devices and cables).
Similarly, the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, passed under the last government, can be used to maintain alignment. It gives the UK regulator powers to impose ‘conduct requirements’ on companies, in order to protect competition in digital markets. And the UK’s Online Safety Act has similar objectives to the EU’s Digital Services Act, to protect users from harm online.
In other areas, plans for divergence of recycling labelling have been suspended, and ‘not for EU’ labels on meat and dairy products have been abandoned.
Divergence remains
But there are still issues. The EU is unhappy that four years after Brexit, the UK has still not implemented the border control regime for EU imports and customs controls on parcels. This is because facilities are not yet in place, and because of the inflationary impact they would have. But this appears to be hampering discussions on other issues like the UK’s hope of a veterinary agreement.
There are also areas of ‘passive divergence’, where EU regulations have changed since Brexit. They include regulations on vehicles and chemicals, and monitoring of airline CO2 emissions. But many of these could be resolved using powers under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill. And the passive divergence mainly affects the Northern Ireland Windsor Framework, where it seems that the creation of the new-formed Democratic Scrutiny Committee has, so far, avoided conflict.
Growing closer
The Europhiles who mistrust Starmer suspect that his claims about a closer relationship with the EU are merely hot air, designed to pacify the ‘red wall’. This report suggests that they are wrong. These are small steps, but they are steps to bring us closer.
They are a far cry from a return to membership of the EU, or even to the customs union. And it is much less than recent polling in the UK and EU suggests people want. But this report is clear, we have changed direction. There is a long way to go, but for many of our readers, we are at least pointing in the right direction.
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