UK-EU agree Brexit reset in talks breakthrough - reports
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Monday 19 May 2025
(Sharecast News) - The UK and European Union are understood to have reached a tentative agreement on a so-called Brexit reset ahead of a key summit in London, it was widely reported on Monday.
Prime minister Keir Starmer, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa are scheduled to meet in London at 1000 BST.
It is the first EU-UK summit since Britain formally left the bloc in 2020, and Starmer is expected to sign a defence pact and agree deeper economic co-operation.
Behind-the-scenes negotiations, however, have been going on since Sunday, and tentative agreements are understood to have been struck late last night on fishing rights, food and farming checks, youth mobility and defence and security.
In particular, Britain has agreed to open its fishing waters to EU boats for 12 more years, notably more than the five years originally offered.
However, in return the government has secured an open-ended veterinary deal, which will remove much of the crippling red tape surrounding British farming and fisheries exports. The EU is British agriculture's biggest market.
Representatives of the bloc's 27 governments in Brussels have received a text of a common understanding between the UK and EU, Reuters noted, and the document was in the process of being approved.
The formal final text of the deal, however, will not be published until the summit is concluded, around midday on Monday.
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