Brexit ‘reset’ Winter 2025/26

Meetings have occurred in monitoring and managing the Withdrawal Agreement and Trade & Co-operation agreement, over the last month, but what did they say and agree. I’d say, not very much. As ever, links and notes …

The Communique

1. Landing Page for a Joint Statement by European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Minister for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds
2. Joint statement by the European Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič and the UK Minister for the Cabinet Office, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the text of the statement.

On Citizens’ Rights

They say,

They welcomed the solution on the true and extra cohort enshrined in UK law and agreed to accelerate the transition from temporary to permanent residence of these citizens. They committed to further strengthen their cooperation on all pending citizens’ rights issues.

So what is the true and extra cohort? Google gemini says, and I paraphrase, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act’s Clause 42 is designed to resolve the inconsistencies of the UK’s treatment of EU citizens vs the commitments made in the Withdrawal Agreement.

I wonder if this will lead the EU to withdraw the two immigration related, infringement proceedings. Google says that the Commission are still proceeding with a court case. This is what the Commission has to say, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_6144 . The Independent Monitoring Agency has also issued a press release, https://ima-citizensrights.org.uk/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill-clause-42/ . This would seem to be rectifying disgraceful decisions taken by the Home Office/Home Secretary immediately after Brexit. There are still some loopholes in the coverage.

• What is true and extra? https://share.google/aimode/2cOkaKdoJ6a2FU4xi
• What does Clause 42 do https://share.google/aimode/lEnaex7EDJuPBOUWr

On Trade

They note progress and anticipate more and much of the focus is GB/NI trade and the EU’s right of inspection. This is another point of friction and a source of some of the other infringement proceedings.

They also took looked at the potential implications of the (EU’s) Artificial Intelligence and Cyber
Resilience Acts and agreed to continue to talk.

On Cyprus

It seems that the legal work in meeting the agreement already made needs to be completed. This is about the government and law enforcement on the UK military bases in Cyprus. (Why don’t we just withdraw?).

Trade & Co-operation Agreement

This section of the communique is a noting of progress made since May 25. These include agreements on Fisheries, and Erasmus. The meeting also anticipated further work on energy co-operation and finalising the agreements on Youth exchange, SPS and a common emissions trading scheme.

In the area of trade and the economy, the co-chairs exchanged views on global challenges, including measures relating to global steel overcapacity, economic and supply chain security, and parties’ respective industrial policy measures. They also discussed the development and implementation of their respective Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms.

They reference a third UK-EU dialogue on Cyber issues in December 2025, and discussed the next steps towards progressing cooperation on cyber security. I need to see what they said.

They also anticipated the Treaty reviews, which one might hope is quicker than progress on the reset.

I say

This is thin gruel, making the most of what has already been agreed and congratulating themselves on the slow progress of the reset agenda. The immigration reforms are to be welcomed.

Meanwhile, we note UK EU divergence tracker Q4 2025 from UK iCE who note the divergence in the UK, on financial services regulation and by the EU on climate impact reporting and regulation of AI and social media.