Channel Islands Brussels Office (CIBO)
The Chief Minister of Guernsey, Deputy St Pier, and the Minister for External Relations of Jersey, Senator Gorst, visited Brussels on 11-12 July 2018 as part of the regular political level engagement by the Channel Islands with the EU Institutions.
Their programme, organised by the Channel Islands Brussels Office (CIBO), included meetings with the Permanent Representatives of France, Latvia and Romania; senior officials from Finland and the UK; the Chiefs of Staff of EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová and of EU Security Commissioner Sir Julian King; Wolf Klinz MEP; Ashley Fox MEP; the Swiss Ambassador to the EU and the Head of the Government of Gibraltar EU Office.
Following their meeting with the Chief of Staff of Commissioner Jourová, Jersey’s Minister for External Relations, Senator Ian Gorst, commented:
“It was invaluable to meet with the Chief of Staff of EU Commissioner Jourová to update her on Guernsey and Jersey’s adoption of equivalent legislation to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Law Enforcement Directive (LED), as well as exchanging views on the shared objective of tackling money laundering and terrorist financing.”
More information on the Guernsey and Jersey GDPR legislation is available here.
The meetings gave Ministers an opportunity to exchange views on Brexit and to update EU interlocutors on the work that is being undertaken by the Islands to implement commitments made to the EU as part of the ongoing EU tax listing process. In this regard, Deputy St Pier said:
“The visit to Brussels was very well timed given political developments in the UK. We discussed with representatives from the EU27 the value we place on the ongoing relationship between Europe and the Channel Islands. We were able to provide reassurance about the work that we are undertaking in Brexit planning, as well steps to meet the commitments made to the EU Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation.”
More details are available in the background note prepared by CIBO on “the Channel Islands and Brexit”.
For further information, please see the Guernsey and Jersey press releases.
