European Union affairs from a UK perspective.
The Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar travelled to Brussels on 27 May 2026 for a high-profile reset meeting with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The visit reverberates well beyond Budapest: it signals shifting alignments inside the European Council and creates an unexpected opening for UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s parallel push to reset London’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU.
The General Affairs Council on the EU side will discuss the state of play of EU-UK relations later this week, with the file taking on added sensitivity given Sir Keir Starmer’s domestic difficulties. Brussels is increasingly factoring UK political volatility into its working assumptions on regulatory cooperation, defence partnership, and the future financial services framework.
The UK government has published the implementation timeline for the landmark Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement signed with the European Union last week, setting out a clear roadmap for reducing friction at the border for food and agricultural products between Britain and the continent. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released the detailed schedule…
The United Kingdom and European Union signed a landmark veterinary agreement on 23 May 2026, marking the first tangible achievement of the post-Brexit „reset” initiated at last year’s summit and delivering substantial relief to food exporters who have faced costly border checks since Britain’s departure from the single market. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement…
Kemi Badenoch’s net favourability of -17 is the highest recorded by any Conservative leader in over five years, suggesting a slow but discernible Tory recovery beneath the surface of Reform UK’s headline-grabbing surge. The trend has implications for UK-EU relations, where the Conservative posture differs sharply from both Labour and Reform.
