EU Council President Antonio Costa said Tuesday he was confident Britain and the European Union would reach a deal on UK participation in the bloc's multi-billion-euro SAFE defence fund, despite talks over the issue breaking down in November.
A British plan to join the original 150 billion euro ($174 billion) SAFE fund fell through after the government of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to pay a financial contribution to join.
However, Costa pointed to warmer ties between Britain and the EU, with Starmer consistently pushing for a post-Brexit "reset" with the bloc as grounds for hope of a deal.
He also highlighted how Britain and France were jointly leading Ukraine's "Coalition of the Willing" as a reason why he believed a deal would be reached.
"The new Labour government has started the reset, and the reset is going well," Costa said in a speech at Paris' Sciences Po university.
"It could take some weeks, months, but for sure, we will achieve an agreement with the UK on the SAFE issue," he said.
Last month, Starmer said his government would consider applying to join a second possible EU SAFE fund. Under the initiative, the EU jointly borrowed money on financial markets to lend to countries in the bloc for defence.
Asked about Costa's remarks, a British government source said the UK would only sign agreements that were in its national interest, and noted that British firms remained a vital part of defence supply chains across Europe.
The source said the UK's defence industry continued to have access to SAFE under standard third-country terms, which allow British companies to participate in SAFE-funded arrangements for up to 35% of a project's value.
