Channel Islands Brussels Office (CIBO)
On 30 October 2017 the Chief Minister of Jersey, Senator Ian Gorst, and the Deputy Chief Minister of Guernsey, Deputy Lyndon Trott, visited Brussels. Their programme included meetings with the Permanent Representatives of Cyprus, France, and Romania and with senior officials from the Permanent Representations of Ireland, Italy and the UK.
The visit was part of the regular political level engagement with the EU Institutions by the Channel Islands.
The Ministers discussed Brexit. They updated their interlocutors on the consultative mechanisms established by the Crown Dependencies with the UK government. They also underlined the important contribution to the economies and communities of Guernsey and Jersey of the many EU nationals resident there, and hence the Islands’ hope that the question of UK and EU citizens’ rights will soon be resolved in the Brexit negotiations. Other topics discussed by the Ministers included the EU’s external tax strategy, including the current exercise led by the EU Code of Conduct Group to draw up an EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions; third country market access for financial services; and bilateral relations. The meeting with the Romanian Ambassador was also an opportunity to look ahead to the Romanian EU Presidency in the first half of 2019.
