There is a lot on the table for Britain when Andy Burnham travels to Brussels to talk with EU leaders next Friday – from cheaper food to lower energy bills and the chance for under-30s to work in Europe.
The Prime Minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and António Costa, president of the European Council, at the second UK-EU summit since Brexit.
As he prepares to strike deals on everything from farming to defence, Burnham said he believes a “win-win” deal can be agreed that would be “more like the Brexit people thought they were voting for” in 2016.
Burnham, who used his Labour conference speech to say that Brexit has done “more harm than good”, had also planned to detail options for Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU around the time of the summit, but The i Paper understands this now might be delayed.
Here, The i Paper explains what is at stake at the UK-EU summit.
Food and farming
A major food deal is widely considered the summit’s biggest economic prize.
Burnham named it a top priority when he confirmed his attendance at the gathering last month, saying he wanted to focus on “cutting costs for our farmers, food producers and families”.
And, at the start of November, the reported that a 200-page draft text had already been agreed.
Under current rules, every shipment of meat, dairy or fish to the EU needs a £200 export health certificate signed off by a vet, and plants need a £25 certificate showing they are free from pests and diseases.
Some products, including fresh sausages, burgers, some shellfish and seed potatoes, cannot be sold on the continent at all, because EU rules bar them from non-EU countries.
The deal will reportedly scrap most of these checks and allow currently banned products back into the EU. It will also bring back pet passports – a single document letting pets make any number of trips to the EU, rather than needing a new health certificate each time.
The Government says the food deal could be worth £5.1bn a year, and Burnham says it will “ease pressure on supermarket prices” and support British jobs.
The i Paper also revealed last month that the EU had also given the UK a major concession by allowing companies more time to adapt to any changes before they come into force.
Political risk: Medium – These deals would benefit farmers and shoppers, but come with trade-offs. The first is that Britain would have to follow EU rules as they change – known as “dynamic alignment”. But, as a non-EU member, it would have no say in how they are shaped. The second is the asking price. Some EU member states are pushing for the deal, alongside those on carbon markets and youth mobility, to be held up unless the UK agrees to cut university fees for EU students.
Youth mobility
For young people, the summit could reopen a door closed by Brexit.
When free movement between Britain and the EU ended in December 2020, the post-Brexit trade deal made no provision for young people to work or study across the Channel.
In 2024, the European Commission proposed a scheme allowing 18 to 30-year-olds to live, work or study in each other’s countries for up to four years.
However, both the then Conservative government and Labour, in opposition, rejected it over concerns it could return to free movement by the back door.
But at the first UK-EU summit in May 2025, the two sides agreed to work towards a more limited “youth experience scheme”.
The details are still being negotiated, and the scheme has proved the hardest of these deals to land, The i Paper has reported.
The main sticking point is numbers. The UK wants to limit how many young Europeans can come each year, because every visa would count towards net migration – the number of people moving to Britain minus those leaving.
It has raised the cap it is prepared to offer from 50,000 to between 75,000 and 80,000, but Brussels wants 100,000, reported.
A UK source familiar with the talks told The i Paper it was “psychologically important not to go over 100,000 visas”.
Political risk: High – Any deal would add to net migration at a time when the Government has promised to bring it down, and Brussels is pushing for a higher cap than ministers want to offer.
Tuition fees
The other row holding up the youth scheme is over how much EU students pay to study in Britain.
Before Brexit, EU students paid the same fees as British students – currently up to £9,790 a year in England. They are now charged international fees, which can reach £38,000.
Brussels wants EU students moved back onto the domestic rate. But the UK has resisted, pushing for a higher figure because of concerns over university finances.
The EU has since floated a compromise in which European students would pay what it costs a university to teach their course. That would work out at around £12,300 a year on average – about £2,500 more than British students pay, analysis by The i Paper shows.
But even that would cost universities around £280m, according to sector modelling also reported by The i Paper.
European Commission negotiators proposed parking the issue for six months to save the summit.
But member states rejected the idea, and “almost all” want tougher language in the summit statement to bind the UK’s hands, EU sources told The i Paper.
Political risk: High – Offering cheaper fees could cost the UK significantly if it has to compensate universities for lost income. But, failure to strike an agreement could derail other items on the agenda, including the food deal.
EU leaders are expected to use the summit to press Burnham to contribute more to Ukraine’s defence against Russia in 2027.
Kyiv has warned it faces a funding gap of around €70bn (£58bn), and the EU Commission has claimed it is already covering 80 per cent of Ukraine’s external financial needs.
Von der Leyen said last month that the EU “urgently needs other partners to step up” to cover the remaining amount, likely referring to Canada, Japan and the UK.
Britain has already committed £25bn to Ukraine, including £16bn in military aid, according to the Government.
No figure has been reported for how much more Brussels expects it to give.
Political risk: Low – Support for Ukraine is easier to defend than payments into EU funds, but any new pledge would compete with other demands on the public finances.
When Britain left the EU, it also left the bloc’s internal electricity market, where countries trade power freely across borders.
The industry body Energy UK has warned that staying outside will add up to £10bn in costs this Parliament, through higher energy bills and lower Treasury revenues.
Talks on rejoining began last year, but have been slow, and a deal will not be signed at the summit.
Now five EU leaders, including Germany’s Friedrich Merz, have written to Brussels urging both sides to agree “a path” to one. They say it is needed to turn the North Sea into “the largest clean energy hub in the world”.
Some EU countries want the talks wrapped up by the end of 2027, but the EU has made clear it will come at a price.
It wants Britain to pay into its cohesion funds, which help develop the bloc’s poorer regions. Norway, which is outside the EU but trades in its single market, pays around €391m (£325m) a year into similar grants.
Political risk: High – Brussels wants an ongoing annual payment, not a one-off fee, which would grow if Britain later joins other parts of the EU market. That would leave taxpayers with an open-ended bill, which could be hard for the UK Government to justify. Energy minister Martin McCluskey has said no amount has been agreed and that any payment must offer value for money.