The youth mobility scheme, which allows individuals under 30 to study and work in each other’s territories, delayed the meeting.
The UK & the EU have jointly announced that they intend to hold their next summit to discuss the ‘reset’. The focus is on strengthening the relations between London & Brussels on Wednesday, 22 July ’26.
Brussels has delayed the summit, which they expect to convene. The delay primarily stemmed from talks over a mobility scheme allowing under-30s to work, travel, or study in each other’s territory. Recent weeks saw a deadlock, fuelling speculation that this summit may be postponed until autumn ’26.
The president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, confirmed this date at the G7 meeting in Evian on Tuesday, 16 June.
Costa opined that close UK-EU cooperation may be essential. That was primarily for shared European security and resilience, besides prosperity. He added that they were working closely together to make their upcoming second summit on July 22 a success.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, may face a leadership challenge after Thursday 18 June’s Makerfield byelection. Starmer said that his Labour government’s delivering on their promise to reset the relationship, besides putting Britain at the heart of Europe.
Starmer added that together, they intend to tackle the cost of living, boost jobs, and create opportunities for young people.
The head of the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, Naomi Smith, said that whoever is at number 10 during July ’26 must recognise the increasing importance of the bloc. Furthermore, even signalling an intention to pursue membership may help generate the political will that underlies rejoining.
The summit was initially supposed to take place in May ’26, but delays over the youth mobility programme have pushed it back to late June & thereafter to early July.
Up until the last fortnight, senior EU diplomats expressed disappointment that the ‘momentum is being lost’ in the ‘reset’ that Starmer has so often promised since he took office 2 years back in ’24.
