One EU official said: "The commission mainly wants to see if Starmer is willing to engage on the detail of a youth mobility scheme. If he shows a willingness to do so, that could unlock a lot of other low-hanging fruit' such as a defence deal."
Anand Menon, the director of the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, said youth mobility had become a token of good faith in the relationship between London and Brussels. He said: "There is a sense of apprehension that nice talk is all there is, and when it comes to the substance either the Labour party isn't really willing to do anything or doesn't know what it wants. A lot of people are looking at this meeting to see if there's any meat in the sandwich."
Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, expressed: "I've been taken aback by how frustrated both sides are actually. There's a strong desire to see substantial engagement, but uncertainty continues to cloud the prospects of a meaningful reset in UK-EU relations."
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