Member state of the European Union

Prime Minister Andy Burnham's speech at the Labour Party conference has put the issue of rejoining the European Union back on the table.

He spoke of closer ties to Europe and suggested on Thursday that a new referendum on EU membership could form part of the Labour manifesto for the next general election.

The response from Europe was positive with French President Macron describing it as very good news and Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said the UK would be welcomed with open arms.

Speaking to Radio 4, Burnham was careful not to commit too early.

Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein belong to the European Economic Area and are part of the single market.

To do that, they have to accept many EU rules, although they don't vote on those rules as that would require full EU membership.

Switzerland has built its own set of bilateral agreements with the EU.

And Britain, after leaving the Union as part of its Brexit movement, has also negotiated a special trade and cooperation agreement with the Union.

The European Union plans to introduce certified digital tools that confirm age without handing a passport copy to every social network.

For now, this is only a draft law, which must be approved by the European Parliament and the Member States of the European Union.

Instagram and TikTok will not vanish from your children's phones tomorrow.

But the signal is clear.

He's joined the EU's defense procurement plan.

It's the only non-European country, non-EU country to do that.

So there's something real there.

I think there's an interesting challenge to the EU, which is, well, what exactly is your plan for dealing with, you know, countries on your periphery? A- are you gonna insist on full EU membership, to your point? Are you gonna be, are you gonna stick with your orthodoxy, which is you're either in or you're out? Or are you going to build on the idea that President Macron has created of a kind of European political community, is what he calls it, which is it's possible to have kind of associate membership of the EU.

The countries trading goods surplus with the EU recorded over the same time frame narrowed to US$32 billion, a decrease of 5.8% compared to July 2026.

The EU's large trade deficit with China has become a significant point of contention in Brussels and many EU member state capitals.

While August trade data may be viewed as a step in the right direction by some officials in Europe, a more substantive rebalancing of trade flows will likely be viewed as necessary for the EU and China to achieve a more sustainable trading relationship.

According to data published by China's National Bureau of Statistics on 9th September, China's Producer Price Index or PPI and Consumer Price Index or CPI both registered inflation in August.