To get talks back on track in the coming year, Keir Starmer and his team are filling their diary with trips to Brussels.

While London and Brussels both say they want to improve the U.K-EU relationship, they are yet to nail down exactly what that would mean in practice. The February meeting could be an opportunity to fix that.

Of the “several strands” where cross-channel cooperation could be improved, a defense agreement is emerging as the most promising, according to one senior EU official.