EU, UK local and regional authorities explore opportunities to close gaps in post-Brexit relations

Local and regional leaders met in Edinburgh on 11 November to discuss how to further develop the relationship between sub-national authorities in the European Union and in United Kingdom, focusing on the importance of promoting peer-to-peer exchanges, particularly through mobility of researchers and students.

Members of the European Committee of the Regions-UK Contact Group, which was hosted by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in cooperation with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament, emphasised the value of youth exchanges, cultural collaborations, and academic partnerships in maintaining a spirit of cooperation and solidarity – a message underscored by the timing of the meeting, on Remembrance Day.

Since its creation in 2020, the Contact Group has argued that sub-national authorities need to be involved in all UK-EU discussions with a territorial and citizens' dimension, a point made again during the meeting.

The meeting in Edinburgh – the second time that the Contact Group has met in the UK, following a meeting in Cardiff in 2022 – took place in the context of political momentum to re-set the UK-EU relationship  between the recently elected UK government and the incoming European Commission, and with a view to the upcoming  review of implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

The Contact Group's discussion of the TCA was informed by a report on the implementation of the TCA recently published by the Scottish Parliament's Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. The report was presented by Clare Adamson MSP, the chairperson of the Committee. Stephen Gethins, a member of the UK Parliament, noted the wide-ranging issues where a further deepening of cooperation between the EU and the UK would be welcome and beneficial to both sides, including energy security and defence.

All participants welcomed the recent return of the UK to the EU's Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes, as an associate partner. In Edinburgh, members of the Contact Group also heard of several examples of how sub-national governments are currently cooperating. The chairman, Loïg Chesnais-Gerard (FR/PES), president of the Regional Council of Brittany, said that his region – for example – is assessing the possibility of partnerships in research programmes and noted that there are many channels for cooperation on the sub-national level. He mentioned, for instance, the UK-France Local Government Forum, which will meet for the third time this December, in Leeds. There are, he said, more than 1,000 twinnings and sub-national partnerships between the two countries.

The members of the Contact Group also reviewed the past five years and the way forward. Given the political momentum and the EU’s institutional cycle of renewal, they stressed that discussions on Brexit’s consequences and EU-UK relations should place a stronger emphasis on regional and local perspectives, with the CoR UK Contact Group serving as a key channel. There was a joint commitment to continue the work of the Contact Group in the new term of office of the Committee of the Regions.

The Contact Group met for the first time in November 2020, after Brexit. The meeting in Edinburgh was the tenth meeting of the Contact Group and the last of the current mandate of the CoR, which ends in early 2025.

Quote: 

Loïg Chesnais-Gerard (FR/PES), president of the Regional Council of Brittany, chair of the CoR-UK Contact Group: "Our work over the past five years shows clearly that regional and local representatives need to be directly involved in monitoring the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and we hope that the revisions planned for 2026 will provide an opportunity to make this a concrete reality in the interest of citizens."