Defence pact likely to be centrepiece of EU-UK 'reset' summit in London

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

68% : The summit, which will also be attended by European Council president António Costa and the bloc's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, is the first leader-level summit between the UK and the institution of the EU since Brexit.
59% : One of the main items on the agenda is a security and defence partnership between the EU and UK, seen as essential for both sides in an era of Russia's power-flexing.
59% : Some in the EU wanted Labour to be more ambitious.
54% : Keir Starmer to host Ursula von der Leyen for UK's first formal summit with Brussels since Brexit, with talks on knife edge It was believed in Westminster that Monday's top-level summit in London between the UK and the European Union would be held at Lancaster House, a mansion beside Green Park that is often used by Britain's Foreign Office to host grand diplomatic get-togethers.
54% : Despite the wrangling, both sides expect a deal to be done and for a security and defence partnership to be the centrepiece of a summit agreement. Ireland and a few other states, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, want to extend access to British fishing waters for EU boats, beyond a cliff edge approaching next year.
53% : British sources say Ellam was picked for the role due to his firm yet calm, non-confrontational approach, as Starmer seeks to strike a better tone with the EU compared to his immediate predecessors.
52% : Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer wanted the meeting to bring a "reset" in relations with the EU.
51% : Starmer's government wants to offer a short extension, while the EU wants a longer one of perhaps five years.
47% : The EU also wants its students to pay cheaper domestic tuition fee rates at British universities, which Starmer is pushing against.
46% : Barely two-and-a-half weeks after his party got a kicking in English local elections from Nigel Farage's anti-EU outfit, Reform UK, Starmer is mindful of any suggestion he is cuddling up to Brussels or undermining Brexit.
43% : There is frustration in London with the EU coming back with last-minute requests for more British concessions.
39% : Although Starmer covets the economic opportunities of a far-reaching deal with the EU, he is also wary of the domestic political threat that warmer engagement with the bloc could pose for his Labour government, especially with Brexit-supporting voters in working-class heartlands.
37% : For Starmer, however, the domestic political risks of being seen as too ambitious with the EU are all too real.
35% : EU sources also said they had underestimated just how much EU institutional knowledge had been lost in Whitehall since Brexit.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.