Following immense pressure from fellow Labour Party members, British\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer has announced his resignation. In Berlin,\nthe news of Starmer\u2019s departure was met with a degree of regret. \u201cFor\nthe German government, Keir Starmer was always a reliable and close\npartner on foreign policy issues, especially those concerning Ukraine,\u201d\ngovernment spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said on Monday (22\/6). And\nGerman politicians are very aware that it was Starmer who made a\nparticular effort to rebuild relations with the European Union,\nespecially with Germany, after Brexit.<\/p>\n
It has now been exactly ten years since the United Kingdom held its\nreferendum on leaving the European Union. When the result was announced\non the morning of 24 June 2016, a shockwave spread across the EU,\nparticularly in Germany. Just under 52% of voters chose to leave the EU,\nwhile 48% voted to remain. Germany\u2019s then-Foreign Minister, now Federal\nPresident, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called it a \u201cdisaster\u201d, while\nthen-Chancellor Angela Merkel described it as a profound turning point\nfor Europe.<\/p>\n
Few in Germany had predicted such an outcome. For most politicians\nand journalists, leaving the EU and the benefits of the European single\nmarket seemed too absurd to actually happen. However, the British\ncampaign to \u201ctake back control\u201d, primarily led by Boris Johnson of the\nConservative Party, was seriously underestimated, especially in\nGermany.<\/p>\n
Brexit supporters also wanted to regain control over immigration\npolicy. In this issue, Germany played a significant role in the\nreferendum result. Merkel\u2019s open-border policy implemented in September\n2015 meant that migrants who had acquired citizenship automatically had\nthe right to settle in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cMigration policy was a decisive factor in the Brexit decision,\u201d said\nChristophe Fricker of the University of Bristol in the UK, who has\npublished extensively on Brexit. However, he added, \u201cIronically, since\nBrexit, immigration numbers have actually risen significantly again,\njust no longer from the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
German-British trade has plummeted sharply. After years of\nnegotiations, the UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020, but it\nwas only on 1 January 2021 that it fully severed ties with the European\nsingle market and customs union.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best indicator of what has changed since then is the\nimpact on trade between Germany and the UK. According to the German\nChamber of Commerce and Industry, trade has declined significantly since\nBrexit. Whereas in 2016 the UK was Germany\u2019s fifth-largest trading\npartner, it has now fallen to ninth place.<\/p>\n
However, according to Christophe Fricker, Germany has not only lost a\nstrong trading partner: \u201cWhat we have lost is a strong defence partner.\nAnd now, defence is actually the main area where cooperation is being\nrebuilt. And of course, we also lost friends. There used to be very,\nvery close ties, both personally and at the civil society level. Now\nthose ties are more difficult and less frequent.\u201d He regrets that for\nthe younger generation in Germany, the UK has seemingly \u201cdisappeared\nfrom the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
New defence cooperation<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the two countries have been moving closer again for some\ntime. German-British trade is governed by the EU-UK Trade and\nCooperation Agreement, meaning it is not in the hands of a single EU\nmember state government.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, both nations continue to strengthen their bilateral\nties, particularly through two defence agreements. The first is the\nTrinity House Agreement, signed in October 2024, which aims to bolster\ncooperation in the defence sector. This agreement was subsequently\nexpanded in July 2025 through the Kensington Treaty, a friendship treaty\ndesigned to deepen German-British relations more broadly.<\/p>\n
King Charles\u2019s three-day state visit to Berlin and Hamburg in March\n2023 also played an important role in post-Brexit bilateral relations.\nDuring the visit, Charles delivered the first speech by a British\nmonarch to the German Bundestag, partly in German.<\/p>\n
Burnham seen as pro-German and pro-European<\/p>\n
The current leaders of both governments, Friedrich Merz and Keir\nStarmer, come from two different political traditions: Starmer from the\nsocial democratic Labour Party, while Merz hails from the conservative\nChristian Democratic Union (CDU).<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Linn Selle of the German Council on Foreign Relations\nbelieves the two have much in common: \u201cStarmer is just as pragmatic as\nMerz, and both are united by their strong support for Ukraine,\u201d Selle\ntold DW. \u201cMerz is also heavily influenced by the Anglo-Saxon tradition,\nfollowed Brexit closely, and certainly wants to see closer political\nties between the UK and the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
But now Starmer is rapidly becoming part of the past. Nonetheless, he\nis still scheduled to attend the next meeting of the E5 group (Germany,\nFrance, the UK, Italy, and Poland) supporting Ukraine, which will take\nplace on Wednesday (24 June) in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, his most likely successor, Andy Burnham, is expected to\ncontinue efforts to rebuild relations with the EU. Burnham is known as a\nstrongly pro-European figure and has repeatedly criticised Brexit in the\npast. During his long tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham\nalso promoted exchanges with Germany.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-decade-after-brexit-germany-and-uk-grow-close-again-1782204911", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }