Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home. I'm your host, Alan Tolhurst,

and this week we're looking at Labour's attempts to reset relations with the European Union,

now that they're in government, what their strategic aims are in the wake of hosting a European

Political Summit last week, and where the closer ties with

our continental neighbours is even a desirable thing politically or achievable through negotiation.

We'll be to discuss all that as my colleague Adam Payne, political editor and veteran of the Brexit years

and countless Brussels summits. Alongside him, I have two brilliant guests, Jill Rotter, Senior

Research Fellow at the think tank, UK and

a changing Europe, and Raul Ruperl, former special advisor to Theresa May on Europe, and a spad at the

department focusing the European Union.

So I'm going to start with you, Jill.

Just explain what the European Political Summit, the EPC, was.

It was the fourth one at Blenheim Palace last week.

Yes. So the EPC was set up in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It's an idea inspired by President Macron that there needed to be somewhere where you could bring together people across,

if you like, the sort of European neighbourhoods, so EU members, but also non-EU member states.

And Liz Trost was the first UK Prime Minister to go. She sort of havered during her brief

membership about whether she should show up at this or not, was persuaded to go.

And actually, the UK, I think, is founded a relatively useful forum to go and meet people now that they don't go to regular meetings in Brussels anymore.

So it's quite a good sort of talking shop, but it's not much more than that.

It's a talking shop for European leaders.

But the timing, I think, was absolutely ideal from Kirstehmus' point of view,

...