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Leeds-Dortmund - German language initiative
June 20, 2025
January 2025: Geoff Tranter, born in Leeds but a long-term resident of Leeds’s twin city, Dortmund, has developed a Beginners’ German Course for English-speaking visitors from Leeds to the Twin City. The course is built around the needs of a British visitor to Germany and presents practical and cultural information about the city of Dortmund. His work was generously funded by the local Government of North Rhein-Westphalia. Recent promotion of the course attracted interest from over 200 citizens of Leeds.
West Midlands - European Capital of Innovation award
June 20, 2025
In November 2024 the West Midlands won 3rd place as European Capital of Innovation under the Horizon Europe programme which the UK has now re-joined.
For more info:
Bristol - EU Pilot Cities Programme
June 20, 2025
In March 2023 Bristol was awarded €1.5 million (£1.3 million) following a successful bid for a new innovative climate action project through the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme from the EU Pilot Cities programme.
Together with 52 fellow Pilot Cities across Europe, Bristol – the only UK city to be awarded funding – is using the grant to further accelerate climate action and rapidly decarbonise the city. The successful Bristol consortium partners are Bristol City Council, Bristol and Bath Regional Capital, Bristol Green Capital Partnership and Abundance Investment.
For more info:
UK-EU Summit 2025: EM UK in the Spotlight
June 02, 2025
The UK-EU summit in London on the 19th May was an opportunity for European Movement UK (EM UK) to connect with the UK and international press on some of the main issues being discussed in the 'reset' of UK-EU relations - Labour's plan to improve business, trade and travel with its largest trading partner.
One of those issues was Youth Mobility, which now often goes under the name 'Youth Experience Scheme' (YES). Noises have been made about limited-term visas for younger people to work and study in the EU, and vice versa.
After EM UK's press office sent out a 'broadcast guest offer' a few days before the summit, Sky News approached us the end result was our new President of Young European Movement doing his first broadcast interview. You can watch that on the EM UK YouTube page here:
Another key issue was a proposed UK-EU defence pact. Our CEO, Sir Nick Harvey, is a former Armed Forces Minister and renowned expert on all defence-related issues. Again broadcasting before the summit, you can hear him here expounding on the various possibilities for a closer future relationship.
That was in fact our second 'hit' of the day on LBC. Our Chair Dr Mike Galsworthy had also done an earlier turn. You can see that here.
This by the way after Mike had done a full THREE HOUR slot on GB News, sitting on set, chatting through every possible issue that the reset could throw up. On days like May 19th, it is important to give people factual information - and sometimes you have to do that in the lion's den.
Our Head of Campaigns, Richard Kilpatrick, was also in the press mix, with one of the subjects that really seemed to dominate the headlines across the entire summit - fish. You can read Richard's thoughts in The Independent here.
Left Foot Forward requested a 'thoughts roundup' after the summit. That was a chance for our Public Affairs Manager, Joe Meighan, to put pen to paper (after earlier appearing on GB News as a guest). You can read Joe's article in full here.
Our Co-President Dominic Grieve was making international airwaves, meanwhile, as it seems even Australia was keeping an eye on what the UK-EU reset might mean globally. You can hear some of that interview here.
Sir Nick Harvey was also interviewed for City AM, again with a focus on the options for closer defence cooperation. You can read that piece in full here.
Sir Nick was having a busy day. He also appeared on BBC Radio 2. You can hear his interview with Ros Atkins here:
Why is this important? Because getting the movement into the press is essential for our campaign to take the UK back to the heart of Europe.
By securing widespread media coverage for our key messages and expert spokespeople, we are ensuring that informed, fact-based perspectives reach a broad and global audience. The more we do this, the more we are strengthening public understanding and the more support we are gaining in the campaign for a positive and ever-closer UK-EU relationship.
Watch: Miriam Margolyes on the Plight of Touring Musicians
May 22, 2025
Actor Miriam Margolyes has teamed up with European Movement UK to highlight the plight of musicians and touring artists trying to work in the EU post-Brexit.
In a short animated film, she explains the effects leaving the European Union has had on the industry.
You can watch the film here:For UK artists, touring the EU was once a seamless journey. Since Brexit, this has now become a maze of paperwork, expensive visas and complicated work permits.
Gigs are disappearing. Musicians are losing opportunities. Fewer European acts are making their way to the UK.
Music scenes are losing their lifeblood and the UK’s live music sector is crying out for change.
Watch the video and see for yourself the damage this foolish decision is causing.
Then, once you’ve watched it, sign our Face The Music petition.
What our campaign is calling for is simple.
We are calling for visa-free travel for musicians and for a review of post-Brexit travel restrictions, so that we can get our musicians back on tour.
Together, let’s tell the government to face the music and negotiate a solution so that Brexit doesn’t put-out any more of our shining stars.
The key outcomes from this week’s UK-EU Summit
May 19, 2025
This week’s UK-EU summit in London was a long-overdue and hopeful step toward rebuilding a constructive, cooperative relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
UK-EU talks on the hook because of fishing - here's why
May 15, 2025
Today’s news brings us another splashy headline: reports that a fish deal—or lack thereof, could sink UK-EU summit talks. Yes, you read that right. Not nuclear policy. Not AI regulation. Fish. Once again, the humble haddock finds itself thrust to the centre of geopolitics.
European Movement UK's response to the US-UK free trade deal
May 09, 2025
No agreement with a country thousands of miles away can replace the benefits of being part of the world’s largest single market on our doorstep.
The UK pursued a trade deal with the US alone because we are no longer a member of the EU, but that doesn’t mean it was worth it.
Watch the new VE Day film: Flags in the Wind
May 08, 2025
Today, Europe marks 80 years since Victory in Europe (VE) Day. But the war in Ukraine rages on - a stark reminder that peace and freedom can never be taken for granted.
While we celebrate the end of an old conflict, millions of Ukrainians are still living through the devastation of an ongoing war.
So we went to Ukraine, to put Ukrainian voices in front of a British audience and to ensure their voices are not forgotten.
We are presenting these stories in a new film: Flags in the Wind.
In Flags in the Wind, we hear from the voices of everyday Ukrainians forced to flee their homes in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Kyiv, relocating to the humanitarian hubs around Lviv.
By hearing their experiences, we discover the resilience of a people, the horrors of war, and the determination to set an example to the people of Europe in the face of tyranny.
With contributions from Ukrainian citizens, veterans, senior politicians, and rehabilitation centre clinicians, Flags in the Wind delivers a sober message at a time when Europe is remembering the end of World War II.
Since we were founded in 1949, our mission at the European Movement has always been to promote peace, democracy, and unity across Europe.
This film is a direct expression of that purpose - reminding us that standing together in the face of aggression is essential to protecting our shared, European future.
As you watch the film, we invite you to reflect on what it means to stand with Ukraine.
Supporting Ukraine is about solidarity. Defending democracy, human rights, and the values that unite Europe.
Watch the film now and join us in supporting Ukraine.
Share the film, send a message of support to the people of Ukraine and start a conversation - all so that, together, we can help keep the spotlight on those who need it most.
Together, we can ensure that Ukraine’s story is heard – and that history’s lessons are not forgotten.
Farage’s agenda gains ground - it’s time to speak up for a better future
May 02, 2025
This morning’s by-election and local election results reflect a shift in British politics that can’t be ignored. Nigel Farage’s populist agenda is gaining ground, an agenda rooted in grievance, isolation, and an increasingly narrow definition of what Britain stands for.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. After years of economic hardship, public services under pressure, and politics that too often feels out of touch, many voters are turning to those who promise quick fixes. But Farage’s message, for all its simplicity, doesn’t offer real solutions. It exploits frustration without answering it. It channels anger without repairing what’s broken.
What we’re seeing is the rise of a worldview that trades on division and disengagement. Its core instinct is retreat: retreat from international cooperation, from inclusive national identity, from responsibility. It claims to speak for ordinary people, but in practice it offers very little to the communities still living with the consequences of austerity, Brexit, and economic neglect.
And yet, there’s a vacuum that allows this message to grow, one created not only by material hardship, but also by a failure to speak confidently about what kind of country Britain can be. The answer to populism isn’t to go quiet. Nor is it to mimic the politics of grievance in a different voice. It’s to make the case, clearly and unapologetically, for something better.
That means talking about real investment in public services and infrastructure, not as a vague promise, but as a matter of national renewal. It means standing up for the idea that British values are rooted in fairness, decency, and solidarity, not in suspicion or nostalgia. And crucially, it means making the case for rebuilding our relationships with our European neighbours.
The anti-European sentiment that underpins Farage’s politics is more than just a campaign message, it’s a long-running project to redefine Britain's role in the world. But that vision is fundamentally out of step with the challenges we face. On energy, on trade, on migration, on security, there is no meaningful path forward for the UK without cooperation. A confident, forward-looking Britain must be internationalist by instinct and European by necessity.
Farage isn’t just echoing Trump’s rhetoric, he’s replicating his strategy. Like Trump, Farage thrives on fuelling division, blaming minorities, attacking democratic institutions, and presenting himself as a political outsider despite decades in the system he decries. He flatters disillusionment but offers no substance, just grievance, nationalism, and empty slogans. Both men built movements on the idea that their country had been ‘taken over’, and only they could ‘take it back’. But we’ve seen where that path leads: unrest, democratic erosion, and a politics of permanent outrage. Farage wants to turn Britain into a mirror of Trump’s America, angrier, meaner, and dangerously detached from reality.
As we approach the UK-EU Summit on 19 May, this is the message we will be championing. Not because it’s politically convenient, but because it’s right. We cannot meet the future by retreating from it. And we cannot let voices of division go unchallenged.
Farage’s agenda may be gaining ground, but so too is the appetite for something more hopeful, more open, and more honest. Let’s rise to meet it.