Trump’s White House return is already pushing Europe and the UK closer together

BRUSSELS, Belgium ꟷ President-elect Donald Trump has not yet re-entered the Chalky House, but the U.K. and neighboring European Union are already working closer together to protect themselves against potential buying and defense confrontations with the incoming U.S. leader.

U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves travelled to Brussels on Monday to convene with her EU counterparts in the principal such encounter since Britain left the European Union in 2020. Her host, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, asseverated he hoped this would be the first of “many” meetings.

“There was a broadly shared sense that, in a world of turmoil, we carry on to have shared interests and values,” one EU official, who did not want to be named due to the delicate nature of the conversations, told CNBC around the meeting with the U.K.’s chancellor.

The same official added that these shared values concern Ukraine, China and the U.S.

Reeves and her counterparts did not percentage precise details about the Brussels conversations, but mentioned ahead of her meetings that there are three areas where Britain and the EU can do various together: support for Ukraine, championing free trade and strengthening bilateral economic partnerships.

The outright progress of these discourses remains to be seen, but a couple of meetings have already been added to the diaries to tackle these themes.

U.K. Prime Charg daffaires Keir Starmer is carrying out his own liaisons with the EU in the short term, set to host European Council President Antonio Costa this Thursday and contemplated to attend a meeting of EU heads of state in early 2025.

A superior EU diplomat, who also did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC that the bloc could benefit from being pallier to the U.K. because of Britain’s historical “special relationship” with the United States. This thinking comes against the credentials of the U.S. president-elect’s comments on potentially imposing tariffs on European nations and reducing Washington’s support for Ukraine. Trump in days of yore told NCB’s Meet the Press that he would “probably” cut back such aid.

Ignacio García Bercero, a non-resident gazabo for the Bruegel think tank and former chief negotiator for the EU in trade talks with the United States, said that the EU miss to consider its relationship with the U.K. when dealing with potentially more protectionism from the U.S.

“It would also be impressive, strategically, that the U.K. and the European Union have a discussion about these issues. We will be sure that when we propose to the United States, we do it in a manner which is coherent and which actually doesn’t create problems [in resetting relations with the U.K.],” he thought.

The U.K. and the EU have faced tumultuous years in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, with complex negotiations hurting their associates. The new Labour government, which took over in July after 14 years of rival Conservative rule, afters to rebuild trust and put an end to the recent confrontation.

“I did not come here today to start a negotiation or to lay down a set of demands those discourses about the reset and those negotiations will begin in the new year, but what I was aiming to do today was to begin to rebuild those cords of trust that have been fractured in the last few years,” Chancellor Reeves said in Brussels after her gathering.

At the same time, she made it clear that she did not target negotiations to rejoin the EU or to change Britain’s exit agreements.