Rachel Reeves plans to end the UK’s “fractious” post-Brexit accord with the EU, a relationship she said had been defined by “division and chaos”, by promising closer ties in the first speech by a UK chancellor to eurozone finance ministers since 2020.

Reeves will say she wants to adopt a “business-like” approach through an “economic reset” with the EU, offering the goal of driving up trade and growth.

“This is the first time a British chancellor has addressed the Eurogroup [of finance ministers] since Brexit,” Reeves will tell the meeting in Brussels. “It is a signal of the new UK government’s commitment to resetting our country’s relationship with the European Union, and the importance I place in realising the economic potential of our shared future.

“I know that the last few years have been fractious. Division and chaos defined the last government’s approach to Europe. It will not define ours,” she will say.

Some Brussels officials have taken a tough line on any revisions to cross-border trading relations while the UK refuses to consider rejoining the single market and customs union and rules out the free movement of labour.

There are concerns in No 11 that any closer ties Reeves orchestrates could be undermined by demands from Brussels for greater access to UK fishing waters as the price for any relaxation of border checks. An extension of EU fishing rights remains a major policy aim in many European capitals, including Madrid.

Emphasising the tensions inside the Eurogroup, Ireland, which holds the chair, is known to want closer relations between Brussels and London as a way to prioritise policies that promote growth.

Political turmoil in Paris and Berlin has potentially given the UK further leverage as a source of improved trade after the two largest economies in the 20-member eurozone suffered a slump in business confidence.

Reeves will say the strategic strengthening of relations through her “reset” will be underpinned by an aim of making working people better off through increased investment, lower prices and better jobs.

The chancellor will also highlight three key “shared challenges” that improved UK-EU relations could tackle – the war in Ukraine, championing free trade to drive economic competitiveness and rejuvenating bilateral economic partnerships.

“We want a relationship built on trust, mutual respect and pragmatism,” she will say. “A mature, business-like relationship where we can put behind us the low ambitions of the past and move forward, focused instead on all that we have in common. And all that we might achieve together to keep our countries safe, secure and prosperous.”