On Monday 9 December in Brussels, the President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, welcomed the desire of the countries of the European Union and the United Kingdom to make a fresh start in their bilateral relations.
Today, “in a world marked by increasing volatility”, it is important to focus on our relations with partners with whom we share “common values” and “political priorities”, declared Mr Donohoe, who was convinced that this meeting would lead to others.
Ms Reeves said she was “overwhelmed” by the finance ministers’ response to the UK government’s proposal to establish “a more business-like relationship” with the EU, “no longer based on division or antagonism”, but one that would bring “national interests” to the fore in order to develop new opportunities for trade and cooperation. However, she pointed out that the “red lines” set by British voters were clear: “no return to the single market, no customs union and no free movement of labour”.
The two ministers stressed on several occasions that this first meeting was not intended to initiate negotiations, which would take place in 2025.
One of the areas covered is the City of London as a financial centre, which continues to play an important role in the financing of the EU economy. With regard to the clearing of financial securities, the UK prudential rules relating to clearing houses benefit, until June 2025, from an equivalence decision with the EU rules, thus allowing European companies to benefit without hindrance from these services provided across the Channel (see EUROPE 12886/17).
“The whole of the EU benefits from the depth and liquidity [of financial services] that we have in the UK, which can help finance the start-ups, scale-ups and infrastructure investment that we need in the energy sector”, noted the Chancellor of the Exchequer. On the same day, she said she had met the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Albuquerque.
The President of the Eurogroup pointed out that, since June 2023, the EU and the UK had put in place a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) on financial services, which he said was “progressing well” (see EUROPE 13210/3). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)