The Government has confirmed that the second UK-EU Summit will be held in Brussels on 22 July. The Prime Minister announced the date on 16 June, after meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa in the margins of the G7 in France.

It will be the first summit since May 2025, when the two sides agreed a Common Understanding setting out a renewed agenda for cooperation, building on the positive steps taken by Rishi Sunak. The Conservative European Forum welcomed this commitment. But a year on from the Common Understanding there is too little to show for it, and 22 July must be the point at which the talking turns into concrete steps to improve prospects for British businesses.   

Running through all of this is a familiar problem - a lack of transparency from the Government about the progress of negotiations. Ministers have said very little about what they actually want from the summit, which leaves trade bodies and other interested parties with no way of contributing. Where closer cooperation with the EU brings clear benefits for our economy and our security, the Government should get on with it, and should be far more open about what it is trying to achieve.

The Government must use the 22 July summit to secure real progress on SPS, youth mobility and energy, to begin negotiations on access to Eurodac and SIS II, and to set out plainly and publicly its strategy for the future of the UK-EU relationship.