Agenda item

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

Members considered a report of the Director of Economic Development on recent engagement with EU policymakers. The Chairman considered that the recent Business for New Europe/Business for Britain event held at Guildhall on 1 October 2015 had been unsatisfactory and had not encouraged a worthwhile debate. He felt that the City Corporation’s resources were better focused on smaller scale, more focused, events.

The Chairman then updated members on the City of London Corporation Brussels event held on 13 October 2015. He noted that it had been well attended with a keynote speech from the Special Representative for the City. The Chairman had also met both Jonathan Faull (European Commission official responsible for the negotiations with Britain) and Roberto Gualtieri MEP (Chairman, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament) and offered to host an event for Mr Gualtieiri in London.

A member present at the reception commented that it was his impression that EU attendees felt the City Corporation’s engagement with the EU was constructive, and that Commissioner Hill was making a positive contribution in his role as commissioner responsible for financial stability, financial services and the capital markets union.

The Special Representative for the City then took the opportunity to summarise his activity during the first few weeks he had been in post. Going forward he emphasised the importance of stressing the value of the City during the EU referendum debate, and noted that the City had many positive attributes that the EU needed to be successful during the coming century - attributes that were unique to London and which could not be recreated elsewhere.

In response to a question the Special Representative replied that there had been no further update on UK demands regarding reform of the European Union. Moreover the forthcoming debate on UK membership of the EU would not be allowed to overshadow existing City of London Corporation policy objectives.

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