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COP30 served as a powerful reminder of the influence that the UK and EU can wield when they act together.

As negotiations approached a weak final communique, one that risked minimising the urgency of moving beyond all fossil fuels, a unified front led by the UK and EU, with support from Latin American states, effectively steered the talks away from failure. This vital step kept global climate action on course.

The talks looked like they would not progress, with the integrity of them in question, over 'how to talk about fossil fuels'. But it was on this issue of semantics that the UK and EU united and a final agreement was passed at COP30.

The model of UK-EU cooperation we saw on display at COP, like that we have seen with the coalition of the willing efforts, and the joint efforts to secure peace in the Middle East, clearly shows that on foreign policy, the UK and EU must work in concert to meet our mutual aims.

To preserve Britain's influence on the world stage, we must lead with our neighbours. At COP, the UK and EU shifted negotiations, fortified the final deal, and showcased prescient global leadership.

This success in climate cooperation should be a starting point, not an exception. If joint action can deliver progress amid the complexity of COP negotiations, imagine what sustained, structured cooperation could achieve across the broader climate and environmental agenda here in Europe. Re-establishing closer policy links, ensuring the UK keeps up with the EU’s advancing environmental standards and formally aligning on climate action would boost both sides’ credibility internationally and unlock greater impact at future summits.

COP30 showed what’s possible when the UK and EU speak with one voice. Now is the moment to build on that partnership, for the climate, for Europe, and future generations.

For the sake of our planet, we need to take this spirit of cooperation further. Find out more on what we are calling for in our One Earth. One Team. campaign.

Joe Meighan assesses progress made since May and asks, when will the substance catch up with the rhetoric?

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Today, as COP30 draws to a close, we have launched a new campaign video calling for deeper UK–EU cooperation on energy, climate, and environmental protection.

Narrated by our Co-President Caroline Lucas, the video highlights how cross-border collaboration is essential to tackling shared challenges such as climate change, nature loss, polluted air and water, and the rising cost of energy.

Our One Earth. One Team. campaign urges both the UK and the EU to seize this moment of global focus on climate action and work more closely together to secure cheaper bills, healthier communities, and a thriving natural world.

Add your name and tell the government to work with Europe now.

European Movement UK has confirmed its new leadership line-up following elections announced at Saturday’s AGM in Oxford.

Mike Galsworthy has been re-elected as Chair for a further two years, joined by newly elected Vice-Chairs Molly Scott Cato and Gayle Darlington-Shaw. The trio shared a short message with members at the AGM, which brought together supporters from across the country.

"You can feel politically that things are changing, and this is going to involve everyone," said Galsworthy.

“Now it's about capitalising that Labour is now accepting the economic damage of Brexit,” added Scott Cato said, "and about countering Reform."

"We're actively growing the movement. We're campaigning in Westminster, in communities, online and lots of people are joining us," added new Vice-Chair, Darlington-Shaw.

The full election results are available here. Thank you to all those who stood for roles and who took part in the vote.

With the new Board and National Council now in place, our focus is on the mission ahead: challenging the ongoing impact of Brexit and championing a positive, European future for the UK.

[Photo: historian and author Timothy Garton Ash addresses the AGM.]

By Mark English, Policy and Media Advisor to European Movement UK (personal views)

To make smartphones, electric cars, military hardware and much else, you need minerals known as ‘rare earths’. You need to mine them, refine them and put them into the components that many modern products rely on.

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On 4 November 1950, Britain helped to create one of the most important international agreements of the modern age.

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Speaking in Edinburgh on Saturday at the annual dinner of the European Movement in Scotland (EMiS), Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian Prime Minister and former senior member of the European Parliament, said that Europe is facing multiple internal and external threats.

Mr Verhofstadt talked of the rise of the political hard right across the globe, Russia’s territorial aggression, growing competition from China and India and the disruptive consequences of unpredictable American trade, defence and foreign policies. He also called for moderate political forces to recognise that the world has changed dramatically, and that Europe must respond.

“We are at a turning point in Europe’s story. The European Union is one of the greatest political achievements of history. It brought 80 years of peace, stability, growing prosperity and liberal democracy to the continent. All the evidence is that the people of Scotland and of the UK wish they were still in the EU.

“In recent times, we have seen the rise of nations and movements whose primary interests are not a successful Europe of free peoples. Authoritarians, fascists and corrupt opportunists in and beyond Europe don’t wish Europe well.

“Europe today is a haven for free men and women, for decent values and the politics of partnership and cooperation. All that must be made secure, so Europe’s peoples are safe from the modern jackboot. Moderate political movements of Europe – the centre left and centre right – must work together to urgently find ways to counter the threats to our way of life.”

First Minister John Swinney, who attended the EMiS dinner, welcomed Mr Verhofstadt’s remarks as “a wake-up call for all European nations to address our shared challenges together.”

He added: “The Scottish Government is strongly committed to the closest possible relations with our European neighbours, with whom we share the EU’s founding values – human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and respect for human rights.

“Scotland voted decisively to remain in the EU in 2016. Brexit has severely damaged Scotland and the wider UK’s economy and society. It has restricted freedom of movement, reduced opportunities for cultural exchange, harmed trade. Our position is clear: Scotland’s interests are best served by rejoining the EU as an independent member state. In the interim, we support rebuilding the deepest and most ambitious partnership possible with the EU.”

Richard Demarco elected Scottish European of the Year

Richard Demarco, artist, arts impresario, academic, writer and public intellectual has been elected Scottish European of the Year by the members of the European Movement in Scotland. The award was announced at the EMiS annual dinner.

The certificate awarded by EMiS reads:

“In recognition of his lifelong commitment to European culture, his championing of the values of free expression through the Arts, his numerous contributions to enriching the cultural life of Edinburgh and Scotland, his internationalism and his championing of unity and peace across Europe.”

Demarco is the only British citizen to be awarded the European Citizen's Medal by the European Parliament. 

Born in Edinburgh, he is an Italian-Scot. Now 95, he has been at the centre of Scottish artistic and intellectual life since the 1940s. He was a founder of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre and a central figure in the creation of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Find out more about EMiS here.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has become the third senior minister this month to speak openly about the damage Brexit has done to Britain’s economy, signalling a decisive shift in tone from a government that has long avoided the subject.

In an interview ahead of November’s Budget, Reeves said that Brexit, alongside years of austerity and the fallout from Liz Truss’s mini-budget, has “weighed heavily on the UK economy.” She confirmed that the impact of leaving the European Union has been “severe and long lasting” and that the Office for Budget Responsibility has consistently overestimated productivity growth since the referendum.

Economists now expect a £50 billion shortfall in the public finances. Reeves said she will not “duck those challenges” as she prepares for tax and spending decisions later this month, but made clear that Brexit remains a core part of the problem.

Her remarks follow Keir Starmer’s speech at Labour Conference and Wes Streeting’s comments last week at the Cliveden Literary Festival, both of which broke years of political silence around Brexit’s economic consequences. Together they reflect a growing recognition inside government that Britain cannot rebuild its economy without facing the truth about what went wrong.

This acknowledgment matters. Honesty about Brexit’s costs is not a political risk; it is a national responsibility. Britain’s recovery depends on restoring cooperation with Europe, repairing trade, and rebuilding the trust that decades of partnership once delivered.