Negotiations between London and Brussels are continuing ahead of a summit, which has yet to be rescheduled after Britain’s change of government.
LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister Andy Burnham is yet to turn his attention to the EU. When he does, Brussels is ready to offer a deal.
Two people familiar with the EU’s thinking said the European Commission is open to a compromise on the thorny issue of tuition fees, which is currently holding up the reset talks started by Keir Starmer.
Like his predecessor, Burnham has said building a closer relationship with Europe is a priority. But he must first complete the half-finished talks Starmer left him — and the tuition issue is proving particularly tricky.
The EU has been pushing for European students to pay domestic rate tuition fees when studying at British universities, as they did before Brexit.
At £9,790, these are significantly lower than the eye-watering international fees international students have to pay — which are sometimes as high as £60,000 a year for the most prestigious courses.
But London has been resistant to the idea because its university sector says it depends on the cash to balance its books.
The Russell Group of research-intensive universities says the change would cost £580 million — money that administrators are skeptical the British Treasury would stump up to bridge the gap.
But a new idea now doing the rounds in Brussels is a halfway house, the two people — an EU diplomat and an EU official, both, like others in this story, granted anonymity to speak frankly — said.
While the EU is still seeking a cut in fees, its students would be expected to cover their costs to institutions. The result would be paying fees higher than domestic British students, but lower than other international students, from whom universities make a profit.
It’s still unclear whether all 27 EU member states would support a lesser discount. The call for domestic fees has been strongly backed by EU capitals, who pushed for it to be inserted in negotiations at the last minute.
Asked about the proposed compromise on tuition fees, a spokesperson for the European Commission said they wouldn’t comment on ongoing negotiations.
Common understanding
Approval from London is also far from certain.
British negotiators have long noted that the demand for a fees cut was not even mentioned in the “common understanding” negotiating roadmap drawn up at the EU-U.K. summit last May.
But the fees issue has become crucial because the EU is refusing to close negotiations on other topics until it is settled.
Under the “reset” initiated by Starmer, the U.K. and EU want to agree an agri-food deal to smooth trade in food and drink; an emissions trading agreement to exempt each other’s businesses from carbon border taxes; and a youth mobility scheme to make it easier for young people to live abroad.
But negotiators on both sides say these agreements all come as a package and cannot proceed separately. Brussels insists that the tuition fees issue should be dealt with as part of the proposed youth mobility scheme.
Summit’s up
The agreements were meant to be finalized at a summit in Brussels earlier in July, but the meeting was postponed following Starmer’s resignation as prime minister.
Andy Burnham and his EU interlocutors have both said they want to set a new date for the meeting this year. Its looming nature was previously concentrating the minds of negotiators on getting the deals over the line in time.
No new date has yet been set. In contrast to his predecessor, Burnham has started his premiership with a “rolling thunder” of mostly domestic-policy focused announcements.
Officials on both sides have, however, said they expect the meeting to be held in October or November to dodge the summer break, the U.N. General Assembly, and the Labour Party conference.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Starmer’s Brexit minister, had been leading preparations on the U.K. side for the original summit, but left government along with his boss and was replaced in the EU relations brief by a new minister, Hamish Falconer. Falconer spoke to his EU counterpart, trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, shortly after his appointment last week.