UK and EU to resume defense talks as soon as possible – media
According to Ukrinform, The Guardian stated this in an article, citing diplomatic sources.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is expected to arrive in London next week for talks on trade, energy, and fisheries. However, according to the sources, Britain is interested in resuming defense talks as soon as possible.
Negotiations on the United Kingdom's accession to the EU defense fund "Security Action for Europe" (SAFE), worth EUR 150 billion, collapsed in November 2025 amid claims that the bloc had set too high a price for joining the program.
France denied responsibility for the breakdown of the talks, but diplomatic sources said tensions remain between Paris and other EU member states, including Germany. According to the sources, Germany wants Britain to join the SAFE program "as soon as possible."
One European source said that France wants to make Britain's participation in SAFE conditional if London does not take part in a second defense program agreed in December by EU leaders, which provides Ukraine with a EUR 90 billion loan backed by frozen Russian assets held in Belgium. Germany does not want any preconditions.
Sources in Brussels acknowledged that the failure to reach an agreement in November was "an embarrassment", given that the EU and both sides had already announced the prospect of "enhanced cooperation" within SAFE at a summit organized by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in May last year.
On Monday, Sefcovic is set to meet with the UK's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Nick Thomas-Symonds, at the annual meeting of the EU-UK Partnership Council. This body was created to oversee the implementation of the agreement between the bloc and the United Kingdom after Brexit.
It is noted that defense is currently not on the agenda, as Britain is prioritizing progress in the food and beverage sector.
In addition, Sefcovic and EU Commissioner for Economy and Productivity Valdis Dombrovskis will meet with UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves to discuss geoeconomics.
The EU Trade Commissioner will also meet with UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Peter Kyle.
As Ukrinform previously reported, on May 19 the leaders of the United Kingdom and the European Union reached an agreement on a wide-ranging "reset" of relations between London and Brussels many years after Brexit.
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