Raouna: ‘urgent need’ to strengthen defence cooperation with UK

European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna on Wednesday spoke of an “urgent need” for the European Union to strengthen its cooperation with the United Kingdom in the field of defence.

“Defence and security are a common priority for the EU and the UK,” she told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee (Afet), with the EU and the UK having signed a security and defence partnership between them at a high-level summit in May last year.

The UK government said at the time that the partnership “reflects our shared geography, history, interests, and values, and the fact that the UK and the EU are both significant international actors with strong defence and security capabilities and expertise”.

On this front, Raouna on Wednesday said that a second summit “could take place” during Cyprus’ six-month term as the holder of the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency.

“We are ready, within the framework of our institutional role, to facilitate the relevant process. It goes without saying that the full implementation of existing agreements and protocols is a necessary condition,” she said.

She had earlier described last May’s summit as an “important milestone” and said that it “provided positive momentum”.

More recently, the UK agreed to reintegrate its universities into the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange programme, though Cypriot MEP Loucas Fourlas had last month called on the EU and the UK to do more to help Europeans who choose to study at British universities.

He said that EU citizens who study in the UK are required to pay “endless fees” since the UK’s departure from the EU, and said that he will travel to London as part of the European Parliament’s education committee next month “with the clear goal of working towards the reduction of those fees”.

“If the United Kingdom wishes to re-examine its relationship with the European Union, and this relationship cannot be one-sided, it must give something back as well, and a tangible good-will step is the reduction of tuition fees for European students.”

Tuition fees for EU citizens at British universities have skyrocketed since the country left the European single market at the end of 2020.

While British students have also seen their fees increase to £9,535 (€10,922) per year to bachelor’s degrees, with the most recent increase having come into effect last year, the EU’s requirement that students from across the bloc be allowed the same access to UK universities has been lifted, allowing them to charge EU citizens much more.

As such, some universities in the UK have begun charging EU citizens as much as £38,000 (€43,529) per year.