London could also be asked to pay a fee to join the loan. France, with the support of other countries, last week suggested that third-party countries that take part should contribute.
They made the argument that since EU member countries pay interest on the loan it would be unfair if non-EU countries don’t pay anything, according to three EU diplomats.
However, British officials said this idea was not under active discussion. A U.K government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on internal EU processes,” pointing out that the country has so far committed a total of £21.8 billion in support for Ukraine through military and fiscal assistance.
European Commissioners Maros Šefčovič and Valdis Dombrovskis are visiting London Monday for a series of meetings with British ministers, ahead of a planned second EU-U.K. summit later this year. Their talks this week are expected to focus on trade.
As he left China, Starmer told reporters that he wanted to “get closer” to the EU then he has currently set out, not only on defense and security but also energy, emissions and trade.
Referring to a second annual U.K.-EU summit planned later this spring, Starmer added: “We will not only follow up on the 10 strands that we set out at last year’s summit, we’ll also want to go closer with an iterative process.”
Jacopo Barigazzi and Jon Stone contributed to this report.
