Reflecting the Government’s approach to setting its EU negotiating objectives, we found there is little in the Common Understanding by way of a connecting thread between its different elements. Some of the Government’s known objectives for the “reset”, as well as numerous proposals made by stakeholders for improvements to the relationship, are missing. Conversely, some elements that are included in the Common Understanding, such as electricity trading and steel tariffs, were not articulated a...

Reflecting the Government’s approach to setting its EU negotiating objectives, we found there is little in the Common Understanding by way of a connecting thread between its different elements. Some of the Government’s known objectives for the “reset”, as well as numerous proposals made by stakeholders for improvements to the relationship, are missing. Conversely, some elements that are included in the Common Understanding, such as electricity trading and steel tariffs, were not articulated as UK priorities 89 before the summit at all. There is no sense of urgency within the Common Understanding to establish better ways of working together on Type: conclusion | Number: 19 | Response status: response_pending