The European-Atlantic Group meets at Xchanging's Walbrook Office - A Political Risk Seminar

The European-Atlantic Group meets at the Walbrook - A Political Risk Seminar | Xchanging plc

On Tuesday 14th April 2015 Xchanging’s Political Risk team had the privilege of hosting The European-Atlantic Group (E-AG) in the auditorium of the Walbrook Building.  

The E-AG, is a non-aligned, all party, registered charity founded in 1954, and is renowned as one of the foremost platforms for high level interaction in the field of international relations. It normally meets in a Committee Room in the House of Commons but with the dissolution of Parliament in the run-up to the General Election an opportunity arose to hold the meeting in an alternative London setting.  

In attendance were senior European diplomats, academics, distinguished business leaders, eminent barristers and Christopher Harman - the Deputy Chairman of Lloyd’s. 25 Xchanging customers and members of the London Market Political Risk team were also present.

Xchanging Insurance’s managing director Max Pell introduced the session by pointing to the fact that international relationships were key to the London insurance market. “60 billion pounds worth of premium flows into the capital and 34,000 insurance professionals are employed directly in the Square Mile,” he explained. The London insurance market too added Max was dependent on overseas trade as a staggering 86% of specialist business comes from outside the UK and Europe.

Max then handed over to the Director of the E-AG, Mr Charles Bennett, who introduced Professor Minford.

Professor Patrick Minford gave a spirited and entertaining talk for around 50 minutes, illustrated by slides, on the future of the Euro and Britain’s place within it. He is Professor of Applied Economics at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, and was previously Professor of Applied Economics at Liverpool 1976-1997. He moved into the academic world after some years as a Government Economic Adviser. The talk was based in part on his 2005 book, “Should Britain leave the EU?: An Economic Analysis of a Troubled Relationship”, a new edition of which is in development.

Professor Minford is a distinguished macroeconomist, but one who can put across ideas and explanations in a way that the informed and interested non-specialist can understand.

He explained that he felt the UK had a ‘fracturing’ relationship with Europe and that a degree of reset in the relationship could lead to the opening up of more international trading channels. Professor Minford also noted that “half our trade is with the Dollar area” and this could be counterintuitive to being part of the Eurozone, which although had delivered its members currency stability against each other, had led to destructive volatility against the US Dollar.    

When the meeting opened to the floor His Excellency Mr Daniel Mulhall, the Irish Ambassador, opened the engagement by delivering an equally spirited and well-argued riposte, commenting sotto voce on the subject of bail-out fund, “…and we’ve paid back everything owed…”. This was followed by some polite and good natured exchanges with a senior retired British Diplomat, and several other interventions from the audience. It was indicative of the interest in, and quality of the debate that the meeting overran by some twenty minutes.   

With the General Election less than three weeks away, we are bound to see more engaged debates on the UK’s future within Europe and the global stage. We await the outcome with interest.

We also look forward to further developing our relationship with the E-AG, in addition to hosting other events of our own.