British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told European Council President Antonio Costa that London should be bolder in pursuing closer ties with the European Union, with a UK-EU summit this year providing such opportunity, his office said on Monday.
– Burnham met Costa late on Sunday while travelling to Kyiv to co-chair a meeting of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” in his first visit to Ukraine since becoming prime minister.
– His office said Burnham told Costa that Britain should build on existing defence and security cooperation with European allies and seek closer collaboration across the relationship.
– The British leader told Costa that Britain “had to be bolder in terms of getting closer to the bloc“, a Downing Street spokeswoman said of the two leaders’ talks.
– “That included building on the close defence and security ties already forged between the UK and European allies to drive greater cooperation across all areas of the relationship.”
– Britain has tried to improve its trading ties with the EU since it elected a Labour government in 2024, but progress has been slow, with frustrations emerging on both sides about what the former member should expect outside the main institutions.
– A spokeswoman for the British government said the two leaders agreed the UK-EU summit later this year would offer a good platform to continue that work.
– Burnham also met Luxembourg’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, while travelling to Kyiv. They discussed different mechanisms for increasing defence spending, including the Canada-backed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and the Multilateral Defence Mechanism launched by Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and Poland.
– Downing Street said the two leaders discussed how the two schemes could complement each other.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/pm-burnham-says-uk-must-be-bolder-seeking-closer-eu-ties-2026-08-24