Eurozone creates test for CS, says Cahn

The civil service must fight for Britain’s economic interests in Europe, even in the absence of a coherent government EU policy, the former chief executive of UK Trade & Investment has said.


25 Apr 2014

Writing in www.civilserviceworld.com, Sir Andrew Cahn (pictured) points out that “we have not really had an EU policy for some years”, but argues that the civil service nonetheless has a responsibility to foster an EU-wide free market by, “for example, freeing trade in services and stopping state protectionism”. 

This will become more difficult as the EU integrates at two speeds, says Cahn: the existence of the eurozone “creates a continual danger that British commercial interests will be sidelined or discriminated against,” with eurozone members concentrating on building a single market within the euro area.

Cahn urges civil servants to try to get more officials into EU jobs, and to prioritise work on trade. Britain’s Baroness Ashton (pictured with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg) currently holds the post of the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, but Cahn also recommends “going for the political benefits of having a British... trade commissioner, rather than the apparent glory of a foreign affairs commissioner.”

See also: Opinion: Sir Andrew Cahn

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