For any Brit, a trip to Brussels should be a straightforward affair: two hours on the Eurostar, and off the train into a city that is perhaps unfairly maligned. Surprisingly cultural, a unique blend of architecture, and – yes – beer, frites, and the European institutions.
It is to there that Rachel Reeves, the presumptive next Chancellor, will have to go if she js to secure the concessions around the edges of our deal with the EU that she hinted at yesterday. Her proposals are perfectly sensible and focus on individual pinch points for specific industries: as she rightly says, nobody voted to leave the European Union because of chemicals regulations, so the additional costs of exporting those from here to there are very much on her list. Reciprocal as it is, it should be a slam dunk.
But the problem is that whilst British politics has changed, and is about to change more, so has European politics. The simple truth is that Brussels isn’t that interested in us anymore; and certainly not interested in helping any British government to do to the Brexit two-step that allows you to form closer relationships with the continent’s trading bloc at the same time as repeating ad nauseum that the 2016 vote is being respected. Europe has quite enough going on without adding our concerns to the list. That is a shame: goods trade is harder now than it used to be, and mutual agreement on professional standards would make sense for all concerned (we are free traders at this paper, after all). But it may be for the birds.
In fact Reeves may be better off focussing on reforming UK law and embracing deviation from the Brussels rulebook may be more fertile ground. Changes to Solvency II announced last week mark evolution, not revolution, but will give city institutions more ability to invest. Our research and analyst ecosystem is currently hamstrung by Brussels-era bundling rules; tweaking those would help, too.
Reeves has been very clear that she is going to be targeted on matters that can contribute, almost straight away, to growth. She is unlikely to find those on the other end of the Eurostar, no matter how well-meaning the effort.