European External Action Service

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 12th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott]

Secondments provide a platform to demonstrate the UK’s expertise and to foster and develop positive UK-EU working relations. Any organisation, whether that is in government or a corporate company, would want to keep the expertise of people it will need. I cannot give the noble Lord that assurance here and now, but I will certainly go away and find out in order that I can respond to him.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

Does the noble Baroness have any view on which scenario the Russians might be more frightened of: that of our being a country by itself pursing an independent foreign policy, which she referred to, or that of our being a member of the European External Action Service, where we can use all our diplomatic skills together with the established skills of the European Union to send a clear message to the Russian leadership?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott]

Whether it is independently on our own or through the service we have been talking about, if we do the job properly then I am nobody to talk about the Russians being frightened but I hope we will keep them on their toes.