How can the UK’s relationship with the EU be improved? Lords Committee to ask former German and French Ambassadors

The sessions are likely to cover the strength of the UK-EU relationship in the context of ongoing ‘technical’ talks around the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol as well as the relationships with the European Union of Switzerland and Canada, as third-party countries that have trade deals with the EU.

The evidence sessions will start at 4pm on Tuesday 8 November in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.

The full witness details are:

4pm

• Dr Peter Ammon, former German Ambassador to the UK (by video link)
• Sylvie Bermann, former French Ambassador to the UK (by video link)

5pm

• Micheline Calmy-Rey, former President and Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland (by video link)
• Professor Michael Ignatieff, former leader of the Canadian Liberal Party and former President and Rector of the Central European University (in person)

In the first session, the Committee is expected to cover the state of the UK’s bilateral relationship with Germany and France, the extent to which the UK should focus on its diplomatic relationship with individual member states as opposed to the European Commission, and the effectiveness of cooperation between the UK and the EU in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the second session, topics will include the lessons the UK can learn from the Canadian and Swiss experience of working with the EU, the extent to which the countries cooperate with the EU on foreign and security policy issues, and the implications of the UK’s exclusion from the Horizon Europe programme for science and research cooperation.