The Sovereignty Test

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​A short framing paper ahead of the UK–EU summit

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This paper argues that the case for deeper UK–EU coordination is not about Europe. It’s about power. The ability to control what happens at our borders. To secure our energy. To shape our defence posture. To protect the integrity of our democracy.

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That power cannot be restored by going it alone. These are shared challenges and Britain is a small country. Pretending otherwise is not a serious strategy.

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The Sovereignty Test captures the strategic reality taking shape across the continent. In defence, energy, borders and information, Europe is beginning to act like a bloc. Not always coordinated. Not always tidy. But increasingly aligned around shared threats and collective capability.

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A new relationship with Europe isn’t about retracing old steps. It’s about Britain deciding whether it wants to help shape the systems that are emerging or be shaped by them.

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Its framing offers both political cover and a clear narrative - speaking to those who want Britain to be strong, secure, and in charge of its own future, yet still fear that cooperation means giving something up - whilst offering a practical path forward for those who already believe cooperation with Europe is in our best interests.

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The paper sets out how the UK can regain control over its future, under a single strategic story, by working more closely with Europe on four defining tests of modern sovereignty:

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On defence, it means stepping up to shape the systems that will increasingly define Britain’s own security and help Europe as a whole to become a credible military actor, able to deter threats without over-reliance on the United States, restoring presence in operational cooperation on borders and aligning procurement rules.

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On migration, it means being part of the systems that track, process, and return people before they reach the UK, rather than firefighting a crisis at Dover that started a thousand miles away.

 

On energy, it means recognising that resilience now lies in scale: shared grids, shared supply chains, shared investment as well as speaking the language of security when talking about energy.

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And in disinformation, it means realising that in today’s connected world, public trust, political legitimacy and national resilience are all shaped online - and defending it will require alliances as robust as those built for physical threats.

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The political choice facing Britain is not between Europe and independence. It is between relevance and retreat. Between leading the next phase of European cooperation - or living with the consequences of its direction, defined by others.

 

There is no return to a world before war in Europe and a changed United States because that world no longer exists. But there is a path forward. It is one built not on nostalgia, but on a sober reading of power: how it moves, who shapes it, and what happens to countries that fall out of its current.

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That is the case for a new kind of UK-EU partnership. Not sentimental. Not institutional. Strategic.