EU says UK remains close partner amid ongoing technical talks

The UK remains a “close and valued partner” of the EU, while technical discussions between the two sides continue across several areas, the European Commission said.

“The UK is a close and valued partner of the European Union. It is for the UK government, of course, to set out how it wishes to develop its relationship with the EU going forward, and we, of course, remain open to engaging on the options it may put forward,” Balazs Ujvari, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said at a daily press briefing.

Ujvari said technical discussions were continuing on a range of issues and stressed the EU's intention to make progress.

“Yeah, so what we are doing now is to deliver on the agenda that was agreed at the last summit. So notably we are focusing on three strands of negotiation. One is about the SBS, so essentially the sanitary standards.

"The second issue area is about linking our emissions trading systems, and the third area is indeed youth mobility,” he added.

Asked whether the UK could become a member of the EU again, Paula Pinho, the chief spokesperson for the European Commission, said the bloc was focused on opportunities and ongoing engagement with the UK.

“No crystal ball on this side of the table. You mentioned opportunities. We are very keen on seizing good opportunities," she said.

"Then again, the devil lies in the details. We are engaging with our UK partners and friends and really willing to do the most of it. Work is ongoing. Hopefully soon we'll have a summit and then we will take it from there,” she underlined.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday that he wanted to see Britain rejoin the EU during his lifetime, while stressing that rejoining was not necessarily the option that should be pursued now.

Speaking at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Burnham said Britain could not have “the clear path we need into the rest of this century” without deciding on its future relationship with the EU, which he described as “still our largest market.”

The UK left the EU in 2020, four years after a referendum in which about 52% of voters chose to leave.

Burnham said he would use the opportunity around the summit to set out the choices available to Britain.

“And there are different options, and I will see if we can find consensus around one, which will give us clarity about our position and the future of the continent that we live in,” he said.