Does the environment provide a route to rebuild UK and EU relations?

From illegal migration in southern Europe, to a war on its eastern flank; to high living costs at home and challenges abroad from the US and China, there is much on both the EU’s domestic and international agendas. Relations with the UK are not amongst the top priorities, and this is unlikely to change. An expected rightward shift in upcoming European Parliament elections to parties who are Eurosceptic and Euro-hostile speak to those domestic concerns. The EU has moved on from the bruising Brexit saga and is unwilling to go back to negotiating with the UK where there isn’t a broad political consensus view on what it wants and where the fear of disentanglement or regression is ever present.

Nonetheless, the UK is, and will continue to be, a large economic and trade partner for the EU sitting on its doorstep.  Given tensions to the East, greater alignment with the UK on several fronts would be helpful in the coming years.

Mutual long-term interests are broad but include the resolution of innumerable specific questions, ranging over trade, financial services, fisheries, citizen rights, energy policy and much else. Environment and climate merits a place within this strategic agenda, the more so given the urgency and seriousness of looming decarbonisation and biodiversity targets for 2030 and beyond.

First steps in a fresh direction

The upcoming review of the Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) in 2026 will be what politicians, commentators, NGOs, business and think tanks will be looking towards as an opportunity to improve the relationship and to build a more cooperative and considered environment and climate strategy. A fresh democratic mandate via the European Parliament and UK elections will help.  But is the 2026 review the milestone some may be led to believe?

The UK should be asking itself, ‘what’s in it for the EU’? Why should the EU be looking to improve the relationship beyond what it is laid down in the TCA, the most ambitious and extensive trade agreement signed by a British Government? It should also be asking ‘why wait until the TCA review to start making steps towards a more productive relationship’?

The UK will need to be ready to shoulder what might seem more than its share of the effort required to rekindle the relationship, with both environmental and economic benefits. This of course is part of the challenge. The UK will need to be proactive and take the lead to create momentum and build a foundation of trust.   

An environmental EU-UK policy programme for a new Government

An early step would be for a new government to commission a review of what a more ambitious approach to environmental cooperation might look like. The Government should set up an internal taskforce involving Defra, DBT, FCDO, Cabinet Office, devolved government representatives and other relevant departments to develop a cooperative strategy for the environment and climate ahead of the TCA negotiations. This then can be tested with EU counterparts and then progressed through negotiations, alongside accelerated efforts to address a range of issues outlined below.

Amongst other things, the need to respond to the challenge of the US Inflation Reduction Act – a concern that both the EU and UK share - and explore joint initiatives to increase environmental investment on this side of the Atlantic should be considered. 

Similarly, whilst the ink on the EU’s newly binding Regulation on Critical Raw Materials is drying, the UK should move to follow suit by building on the existing UK critical minerals strategy but introduce robust targets on sourcing and reuse of critical raw materials, complementing those introduced by the EU and put in place steps to work together with them to ensure all of Europe’s supply of CRMs.

The UK should ‘bite the bullet’ and formally link the UK-EU Emissions Trading Schemes & Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms, to underline joint climate ambition and determination, whilst also increasing regulatory certainty for business working across Europe and removing the risk of additional costs to British exporters.  

The UK should also adopt a default position that it will generally align with EU environmental regulation, particularly where there are cross border and trade considerations, unless there are strong reasons not to. Linked to this, setting out new principles for alignment of environmental product standards with those in the EU, without sacrificing regulatory autonomy, would be a sensible and shrewd realisation of the economic heft of the EU. 

Following on from the decision to rejoin Horizon Europe and the Copernicus science and research programme, a new UK Government should bridge a widening gap between UK/EU technical and scientific experts on environmental data and information with a return to full membership of the European Environment Agency and Eionet. Linked to this, it should align with EU controls on hazardous chemicals and seek a close working relationship with the European Chemicals Agency.  

In conclusion

Though just some of the potential routes to re-building UK-EU relations, these policy measures represent a more productive and mutually beneficial relationship, that the UK can realise without placing too much emphasis and reliance on a TCA negotiation that the EU have already indicated they do not wish to see opened up.

If taken proactively and with a sense of goodwill, they may just remind our European partners of the seriousness that the UK takes environment and climate policy but also in re-building wider UK-EU relations.   

Michael Nicholson is Head of Environmental Policy at the Institute for European Environmental Policy UK (IEEP UK).