Sorry Britain, Europe’s just too tired and busy to talk much right now.
This week, the U.K.’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host around 45 leaders from EU countries and other nations on the fringes of the bloc at a summit of the European Political Community.
But weary and distracted leaders in Brussels and beyond have little appetite for yet another summit. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will not even be there herself.
“The president is in Strasbourg for the plenary of the European Parliament and will therefore not take part in the EPC this week,” Eric Mamer, the Commission’s chief spokesperson, told POLITICO. The U.K. government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Von der Leyen is in the French city trying to persuade EU lawmakers to ratify her appointment for a second five-year term at the head of the EU executive. Members of the European Parliament will hold a crunch vote on her future on Thursday, making it easy for her to decline Starmer’s invitation to the historic setting of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, on the same day.
Other EU officials would love to have their own excuse.
Many European leaders are still jetlagged after attending the NATO summit in Washington D.C. last week. The conference was particularly draining given it took place in excruciating heat. EU leaders also attended two European Council summits in Brussels just last month.
A trip to a summit, which still has an only vaguely defined purpose, hosted by the U.K. — which left the EU in 2020 — isn’t exactly appealing. “It’s the thing too much,” said one senior EU government aide. “Leaders also need to be home sometimes. So we’ll just go in and out, especially as the expectations are quite low.”
Another diplomat from an EU country also wondered how much substance the meeting will have given the newly elected U.K. government will have been in office for just two weeks. “At least it’s a good chance to meet them.”
That, in truth, may be all Starmer’s team can hope. At the weekend, however, Starmer declared Thursday’s summit would be the moment he relaunched Britain’s relationship with Europe after his landslide election victory on July 4.
Following years of tension between EU capitals and London, dominated by the poisonous atmosphere of Brexit, Britain’s new Labour government is aiming for a full reset.
Starmer said he wants to put the U.K. at the heart of European efforts to confront Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and deal with the criminal people-smuggling gangs that have driven migration to crisis levels in Britain and other countries.
“We cannot be spectators in this chapter of history,” Starmer said. “I said I would change the way the U.K. engages with our European partners, working collaboratively to drive forward progress on these generational challenges, and that work starts at the European Political Community meeting on Thursday.”
Not all the invited guests are cynical about Thursday’s gathering at Blenheim. One senior diplomat from a non-EU country said they are looking forward to the EPC meeting, which they feel provides a unique opportunity for leaders to talk to each other and trigger momentum to push through issues of joint concern.
The summit group was the brainchild of Emmanuel Macron, the French President, who sought to create a wider circle of European allies in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The purpose of the new grouping has never been wholly clear, with some critics accusing Macron of using it to forestall efforts to expand formal membership of the EU to countries such as Ukraine and Moldova.
“At this point, even Macron himself doesn’t seem to care anymore,” one EU official said, referring to the French president’s domestic troubles.
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