Diplomatic talk: ‘EU, UK value their relations with Pakistan’

Moreover, Pakistan is a very large Muslim country and has large diaspora in the UK and the EU fully supports Pakistan's democratic transition, said British Ambassador Philip Barton during a talk titled "overall assessment of the EU from a British perspective", held at the Centre for International Strategic Studies, Islamabad (CISS).

He said that it was in the national interests of the UK that it should be fully integrated in the EU as it supports the growth and economy and jobs but there were certain challenges that were needed to be overcome as well. "The next national elections in the UK will be important in deciding about Britain joining the EU," the ambassador said.


CISS­­ Executive Director Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi introduced the ambassador to the audience.

Barton highlighted that the EU was facing three challenges at the moment.

The first area was competitiveness within the EU. "Competitiveness is good but not fully applicable to sectors such as services and energy," Barton said, adding that Europe could gain it by having more free trade. He also addressed the issue of red-tapism in the EU setup. He elaborated Britain's policy to create more conducive conditions for trade and business opportunities.

The second challenge Ambassador Barton highlighted was of flexibility. He was of the view that the UK recognised that there were different nations in the EU not everyone could get everything, but at the same time, retaining flexibility was important and it was a much better way of holding things together.

The third challenge, according to him, was democratic accountability in the EU. "The turnout 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 on how to develop national consensus on European issues."

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2014.