00:00Brexit is back on the political agenda after the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who's actually in Berlin today, said
00:06he would weigh a range of options for the future relationship with the European Union, including the possibility of rejoining.
00:13Intense talks on resettling the relationship between both sides continue ahead of a summit expected to take place here in
00:20Brussels next month.
00:22Euronews' Marid Gwynne spoke to the UK Minister for European Relations, that's Hamish Falconer, who's actually in Strasbourg this week.
00:27And she began by asking him if Andy Burnham's remarks had radically changed his mandate as the UK's chief negotiator
00:35with Brussels.
00:37My Prime Minister set out a very ambitious approach last week.
00:41He believes that the current relationship that we have is not good enough.
00:45And I totally share that. And that's what I've been discussing with colleagues today.
00:49I've seen my counterpart, the Commissioner Sechevich, here, as well as many colleagues in the European Parliament.
00:55I am ambitious, as is the Prime Minister, to go further and faster with the European Union.
01:02We are eternal neighbours. We have real shared interests.
01:06And we're looking at this relationship with a real range of determination and ambition.
01:12What does that mean then, Minister, for this UK EU summit that we're expecting as soon as November?
01:17Do you expect to simply sign off on the deals negotiated by the previous government of Keir Starmer?
01:23Or can we expect more? And can we expect Burnham to lay out a more long-term vision in November?
01:31So we haven't yet confirmed the date of the summit, but we hope to be able to do so soon.
01:36I want the most ambitious possible package.
01:38Of course, we've been conducting negotiations on a range of issues, including food, electricity trading standards, youth mobility.
01:48But we want to go further and faster, as I said earlier.
01:52And so I'm not going to get too drawn into the detail of the negotiations.
01:56All I'll say is there's a real shared sense, both between me and my colleagues here,
02:02of a desire to bring Britain back closer to the European Union and be as ambitious as we possibly can.
02:07And in answer to your specific question, yes, I expect that my Prime Minister will set out in more detail
02:14some of the views that he talked about in our conference last week around the time of the summit.
02:20I appreciate you can't answer the details of these negotiations, but I want to ask you about Made in Europe,
02:26because I understand that for your government, the UK's inclusion in the Made in Europe industrial policy
02:32in order to avoid UK industries from being shut off the European market is a major priority.
02:39Do you see that a deal on that could be close?
02:43Look, I think it's worth saying at the outset that the industries that have lobbied me
02:47with the most enthusiasm are European industries.
02:51And there's such a clear sense that the European industrial base is shared
02:56with the second largest export market for the EU,
03:00with the largest recipient of new EU vehicles, many of which are partially constructed in the UK.
03:07It would not be in either of our interests to see new barriers arising in our economic relations.
03:14It is so strongly in EU and UK interests that the existing strong arrangements that we have are sustained.
03:21And in terms of the concessions that you're willing to make in order to gain access and be included in
03:27that policy,
03:28you know, how far are you willing to go?
03:30So I think, as I said, I don't want to talk too much about the detail of the negotiations,
03:35but just in general, we've got very clear legally binding arrangements which govern the way in which
03:41the UK and EU markets are so closely integrated.
03:44That's the TCA.
03:45That provides strong protections to both sides on rules of origin and all sorts of other things.
03:51It is the underpinning of a really important shared industrial base.
03:56If we were to fracture that industrial base, that would simply mean a weaker Europe,
04:01both in the UK and in the EU.
04:02So I don't think talking about sort of concessions is quite the right place to start.
04:06This is a shared European industrial base.
04:08We face shared common challenges, which I've been very pleased to discuss for so many of my counterparts here today.
04:16I think it is vital that we don't do things to make European industry weaker.
