Pedro Serrano, the new EU envoy to London, senses he may have come to the UK at a propitious moment, saying there are signs that both sides “want to advance the relationship on many fronts” now that the disagreements over implementation over the Northern Ireland protocol are largely resolved.
With a background as the former chief of staff to the EU high representative Josep Borrell and, before that, the head of the defence department of the EU external action service, Serrano is a genuine heavyweight diplomat. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, his expertise means he is ideally positioned to make a pitch to the UK to forge a closer relationship over foreign and defence policy.
“I believe I have arrived at a good moment with the making and the finalisation of the agreement on the Windsor framework which has rebuilt trust between the EU and the UK,” he says in his first interview.
“Obviously the very rich relationship between the UK and the EU has been affected by Brexit, but the foundations of the relationship are very strong and we are both fighting jointly to reestablish security in Europe after the terrible attack by Russia.”
Asked why the Northern Ireland negotiations succeeded, he compliments both sides, but acknowledges the invasion of Ukraine also concentrated minds.
“As with most things in international relations, there is not one cause for the change, but many causes. Certainly personalities make a difference. The arrival of prime minister Rishi Sunak, the foreign secretary James Cleverly and the Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, alongside the very clear willingness on our side shown by vice-president Maroš Šefčovič and the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, has been fundamental.
“But what has also been fundamental is that all Europeans are jointly facing one of the biggest threats for decades to their security, their livelihood and their values. So in a way it has been easy to have a group of people, very conscious of the challenges they are facing and very pragmatically oriented, to show a willingness to go beyond Brexit and rebuild a strong relationship.”
He is also careful to suggest the two sides have to learn to walk together before they run. The meat and drink of his future work will be the implementation of the revised protocol and future of the trading and cooperation agreement, including talks on British participation in the Horizon research programme, or the EU Retained Law bill, a measure ministers are rethinking as they look at the implications of an automatic end-of-year scrapping of 4,000 EU laws that had been kept on the statute book to ensure continuity.
He pointedly flags his concern over the UK’s illegal migration bill if it requires a breach with the ECHR. “The European Union considers that this is a fundamental issue, and we do hope that our partners also will continue supporting both the European Court for Human Rights and, of course, the Council of Europe, which is one of the backbones for the respect for human rights in the European continent,” he says.
On the positive side, he welcomes British involvement in the European Political Community, a still fledgling institution and the brainchild of the French president Emmanuel Macron that brings together nearly 50 EU and non-EU states at heads of government level to discuss common concerns. Britain attended the first meeting of the EPC under Liz Truss’s leadership and now London has agreed to host the fourth meeting, expected in the first half of 2024. “The EPC does fill a vacuum and, as such, is a very useful structure for European leaders,” Serrano says.
Nor does he rule out the start of regular EU-UK summits. “It is not on the table yet, but such meetings are normal for the EU with third countries to which it is very close. Would it be a normal evolution and development for the future? Probably yes, but it is for the leaders to decide.”
But it is in the field of defence, an area left out of the withdrawal agreement, that he sees as the greatest potential for closer cooperation. He says that “ever since the agreement between Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac at St Malo in 1998 the UK has been at the forefront of developing EU defence policy. The UK has always been behind most of the initiatives that have been developed in the architecture of security and defence policy.”
He says any tensions between greater EU strategic autonomy and the role of Nato have been clarified, and in a way that will assure the British. “It is a pillar of the EU treaties that the way to address collective defence is Nato. So nothing within the security defence efforts of the European Union poses any kind of threat to Nato, quite the contrary.
“All the instruments of European defence policy are open, be it participation in crisis management operations, in developing defence capabilities through the European Defence Fund – all of it is open to third countries. It’s a policy that wants to work with allies and international partners that can contribute to the effort. So these policies are open as well to the United Kingdom.”
He points out the UK has already applied to join a military mobility project, one of 50 or so such projects under what the EU calls Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). The project already joined by other Nato members – the US, Norway and Canada – is designed to ease the movement of military personnel and assets within the borders of the EU.
Serrano sees this just as a start. “There are many doors for the United Kingdom to become associated, be it crisis management operations, or a coordinated maritime presence mechanism, or to the development of capabilities or cooperation in the field of military request management.
“This war has exposed weaknesses in the militaries of all member states; no one was preparing for conventional war in Europe, which is what’s happening in Ukraine.
“The need to provide such important military assistance to another partner stricken by an aggressor was not foreseen. And therefore, yes, weaknesses have been revealed, and we have to address them together.”
