内容摘要：In announcing the split last week, Littleproud said the Coalition had broken up and reunited in the past, adding that he would work with Ley to "rebuild the relationship to the point we can re-enter a coalition before the next election".

In announcing the split last week, Littleproud said the Coalition had broken up and reunited in the past, adding that he would work with Ley to "rebuild the relationship to the point we can re-enter a coalition before the next election".

Before Brexit, British prime ministers would travel to Brussels four times a year or more for summits with the heads of the EU's institutions and its 27 member states. The haggling would go on late into the night. After Brexit those large summits stopped.Now, the Labour government, elected last year on a manifesto that promised "an improved and ambitious relationship with our European partners", envisages new and regular interactions with the EU. Monday's marks the first.

Sir Keir Starmer will host the most senior EU leaders to launch a new "partnership".Pedro Serrano, the EU ambassador to London, has described it as the "culmination of enhanced contacts at the highest levels since the July 2024 [UK] elections". But what will it amount to?Is what's coming a "surrender summit" as the Conservatives warn; "the great British sellout" undoing bits of Brexit that Reform UK fear; or "a huge opportunity" the UK may be about to squander, as Liberal Democrats say? Or could it be an example of how, in Sir Keir Starmer's words, "serious pragmatism defeats performative politics" by delivering practical things that will improve people's lives?

In those long, drama-filled nights of 2020, when the then-prime minister Boris Johnson was negotiating Brexit, the possibility of a Security and Defence Partnership was discussed. But the UK's main priority was diverging from Brussels. So nothing was agreed – a notable omission, some think.Now a new UK-EU security pact has been worked on for months, the plan is for it to be the centrepiece of what's agreed.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, who is overseeing negotiations, was at the early talks at Lancaster House. "Our relationship has had some difficulties," she told me, but "considering what is going on in the world […] we need to move forward with this partnership."

Yet some think the UK should not seize this outstretched hand."Europeans got what they wanted first, and then we had a haggle from a weak position."

So he adds, "If I was giving advice to the government, I would say, tough it out" and use fishing as a lever to seek concessions.But, as the UK found before, Brussels has cards to play. Much of the fish caught by British fishermen is sold to buyers on the Continent and the UK needs access to that market.

Some EU coastal states, like France and Denmark, are prepared to drive a hard bargain, demanding that London concedes on fishing rights in return for things it wants. Early on, even signing the Security Partnership was being linked to agreement on a fishing deal. The haggling will be tough.And finally, there's an idea that has prompted much interest in recent months: a youth mobility deal, through which under-30s from the UK and EU could live and work in each other's countries.