The United Kingdom’s Minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said that his government is on course to sign a triple deal designed to bolster post-Brexit cooperation with the European bloc when both sides convene for a summit on 22 July.
The deal would seek to slash barriers to agri-food trade by aligning sanitary and phytosanitary rules, bring the UK back into the EU’s internal electricity market and grant special visas to young Europeans and Brits under a youth experience scheme.
“Of course, we will get moments of difficulty, as you always do in the final parts of the negotiations, but I’m very confident of closing this deal,” Minister Thomas-Symonds, who is leading negotiations on resetting the UK’s post-Brexit ties with the EU, said on Euronews's interview programme 12 Minutes With.
Talks on the youth experience scheme had been plagued by difficulties, prompting fears that the summit could be derailed. EU countries and the UK have both been seeking to restrict the number of young people who can enter and the length of their stay.
However, on Tuesday, the EU and the UK announced that the summit would go ahead on 22 July, following talks between European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
