Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, Executive Director at CISS organized a round table talk at its premises on June 25, 2014 titled ‘Overall assessment of the European Union from a British Perspective’. Talk was delivered by British Ambassador to Pakistan Mr. Philip Barton.
Ambassador Barton was of the view that Pakistan’s role in the region is important and the European Union would like to keep good relations with Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan is a very large Muslim country and has large diaspora in UK and EU fully supports Pakistan’s democratic transition, he said.
Ambassador said that it is in the national interests of UK that it should be fully integrated in EU as it supports the growth and economy and jobs but there are certain challenges that need to be overcome as well. Next national elections in UK will be important in deciding about Britain joining the EU.
Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, Executive Director at CISS in his opening remarks welcomed Ambassador Philip Barton and introduced him to the audience.
Ambassador Barton highlighted that three challenges were facing European Union at the moment. First area is competitiveness within EU. Competitiveness is good but not fully applicable to sectors such as services and energy. Ambassador Barton was of the view that Europe can gain by having more free trade. He also addressed the issue of red tapism in EU setup. He further elaborated Britain’s policy to create more conducive conditions for trade and business opportunities.
Second challenge Ambassador Barton highlighted was that of Flexibility. He was of the view that UK recognizes that there are different nations in the EU so not everyone can get everything but at the same time retaining flexibility is important and it’s a much better way of holding things together.
Third challenge highlighted was democratic accountability in EU. Ambassador Barton said that turn out is low in EU elections and people vote on national political issues and not on a bigger transnational framework. There are steps and proposals under discussion how to develop national consensus on European issues.
Round table was attended by members of academia, think tank representatives, Policy making establishments, select media and student.
An interactive and stimulating question and answer session and debate on the issues discussed also followed the session.
