Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the competition to identify partnerships between UK and French places launched by the British Embassy in Paris in 2019, what plans they have to encourage such partnerships between places in the UK and places in the other member states of the Council of Europe.

The UK places great value on the role of the Council of Europe (CoE) in advancing work on human rights, democracy and the rule of law across Europe. International partnerships provide a significant contribution towards this objective and the UK Government welcomes such activity. Examples of partnerships between the UK and France and Italy were shared in answers to PQs HL479 and HL430. There are plans to work with local authorities to promote business in Germany. In Poland, we are seeking to work with cities, regional and local authorities on a number of economic issues, including trade and investment and climate change. Additionally, the British Embassy in Dublin's "Joining the Dots" programme, launched in November 2018, promotes economic links between regions of the UK and the South West and West of Ireland.