Latest posts
A startling statistic
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A startling statistic – over half the businesses that get help from UK Trade & Investment go on to win additional sales of over £600,000 within two years. The UK’s trade performance is often discussed in the abstract, or at the...
Europe – the big debate
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I was in Dublin last week for Europe Day, where I gave a speech about the future of Europe. There is always a certain frisson when a European audience invites a British minister to speak. The late Baroness Thatcher said once that if you believed ever...
Bosnia – time to move forward
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This week, at the British Embassy in Sarajevo, a memorial was unveiled to the 59 British personnel who lost their lives in the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s. Their sacrifice is a reminder of the strength of the UK’s commitment to a stable and s...
Serbia and Kosovo’s historic agreement
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Dealing with the legacy of conflict is a leading theme in foreign policy. The guns may fall silent, but years can pass before progress is made on a lasting settlement. That’s why this historic agreement between Serbia and Kosovo is to be profou...
A historic victory for common sense
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Fishermen going out in all kinds of weather, catching healthy fish and then throwing up to two-thirds of them back into the sea, dead or dying: a wasteful, immoral policy that angered anyone who cares about conservation. It was a practice that never...
Innovation Nation
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Britain has a proud history of innovation. In the field of medicine and the life sciences, we’ve brought the world penicillin, unravelled the mystery of DNA, sequenced the human genome and developed MRI scanning. UK scientists have been awarded...
Why Latin America matters to Britain
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A guest post by Minister for Latin America, Hugo Swire: London 2012 will be remembered as an event that created pride and excitement in the UK, and gave us the chance to show what we do best. Now it is Brazil’s turn, and it is the turn of Latin...
List fever
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For anyone who enjoys sitting down over the holidays and reading the newspapers, Christmas and New Year are open season for lists. And in 2012, there’s been a lot to talk about. We’ve seen colleagues from across Government emerging bleary-eyed fr...
Satisfaction
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The Rolling Stones may not have been foremost in the minds of Ministers as they agreed to open trade talks between the EU and Japan yesterday, but if the negotiations are successful, they could be among those that benefit. The decision to open negoti...
Export Week
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It’s not often that I blog about football, but this week I came across a truly inspiring story. Terry Nelson is a former Paratrooper who invented a suit that enables athletes to recuperate in water. He himself has represented our country and won a...
Croatia, and why EU enlargement matters
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In my last blog, I was looking back at the changes that came about as a result of 20 years of the single market. But for Croatia’s 4.4 million inhabitants, the last two decades have seen change of an even more profound variety. In 1992, the year I...
20 years of the Single Market
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This week, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Single Market, and it is a good moment to look back at how our relationship with Europe has changed over that time. Since 1992, the UK’s trade with EU member states has more than trebled. Currentl...
Steps forward on the crisis in the eurozone
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This autumn represents a real challenge to the EU and eurozone to put in place the right measures to ensure a sustainable and long term solution to the eurozone crisis. There have been some really important steps recently in moving towards that solut...
The EU competitiveness challenge – from track & field to the economy
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The Olympic medal table has received intense attention from Britain over the last few weeks. I’m sure this was the case across Europe too – with half of the top ten places in the table awarded to European countries; as Simon Kuper in the FT comme...
Kosovo: Olympic Dreams
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Like many athletes, Majlinda Kelmendi realised a sporting dream by competing at London 2012. But another, perhaps more important, aspiration remains sadly unfulfilled: the ambition to compete at the Olympics for her own country. Whereas every one of...
Reviewing the Balance of Competences between the UK and EU
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Today the Foreign Secretary launched the review of the balance of EU competences. As he said, now is the right time to take a critical and constructive look at exactly where competence lies, how the EU’s competences, are used and what that means fo...
Croatia’s EU accession – a year to go
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I’ve just returned from my first visit as Minister for Europe to Zagreb. My visit comes just one year before Croatia’s accession to the EU. Everyone I’ve met has that on their minds. I’ve been looking at three ways I think we can strengthen...
Supporting democracy in Pakistan with the EU
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I’ve been thinking about how Pakistan is another area where EU collective action and UK foreign policy complement each other in a country that matters to us. As the world’s largest single market, diplomacy based on trade is a major streng...
UK secures improvements to EU fishing policy
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Last week the UK secured agreement from EU Fisheries Ministers on much needed reforms to the broken Common Fisheries Policy. Following 24 hours of tense negotiations at the EU Fisheries Council held in Luxemburg, Ministers agreed to end ineffective m...
Anglo-Dutch Cooperation: Past, Present and Future
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The UK and the Netherlands have always been close, not least since the Revolution of 1688 when William III, Prince of Orange, and his wife Mary were invited to ascend the English throne as King William III and Queen Mary. The links continue to this d...
