00:00When former Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiated Britain's exit from the European Union, he went for a hard Brexit, ending most areas of cooperation.
00:12Now, both sides believe the time is ripe for a reset in areas such as defence, trade and possibly travel.
00:20Security is top of the agenda. The UK still works closely with other European countries through NATO, with British troops currently in Estonia alongside French and Danish forces.
00:32Prime Minister Keir Starmer has joined France, Germany and Poland to lead the so-called Coalition of the Willing to provide peacekeepers to Ukraine once as a ceasefire.
00:43Europe is starting to rearm, but Britain is unable to access the recently agreed $150 billion European Defence Procurement Fund.
00:54And that's adding to calls for closer alignment.
00:57I think defence is the top of the agenda. I think that the UK needs a formal arrangement with which to dock in with the EU on defence.
01:06Other countries have this, Canada does, Norway does. The UK needs this as well because European defence is going to become increasingly important and there needs to be a formal basis upon which we play a part at the end.
01:18Improving trade is another priority. Importing and exporting food and agricultural products has become more complicated and expensive post-Brexit.
01:27Now Britain is proposing to realign UK food standards with the EU to ease border crossings.
01:35Five years on and Brexit remains a divisive issue. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is already facing calls of betrayal from the opposition Conservative Party, while others complain that the reset is too timid and doesn't go far enough.
01:50Travelling abroad to live, work or study has also been severely restricted post-Brexit.
01:57Brussels has called for a youth mobility scheme where anyone under 30 can move and work freely in either direction.
02:04It also wants Britain to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange programme.
02:09So far the British government has been reluctant because these schemes would raise immigration.
02:15A highly sensitive political issue.
02:18And then there's the thorny issue of fishing.
02:22French fishermen were allowed to continue using British waters under the original Brexit deal.
02:28That runs out next year and the French want the deal renewed as part of the reset.
02:33A move opposed by British fishermen.
02:36The UK and EU are clearly trying to move closer together,
02:40but a full return to the European Union is definitely not on the agenda.
02:45Michael Voss, CGTN, London.
Comments