First days in Spain

Let me begin by saying how glad I am to have this platform for communicating directly with you all. As I settle in to my role I will be writing more about how I see Britain’s role in Spain, and giving my own take on events as they take place. But for now I shall just focus on my first few days in this exciting new job.

And what a job it is. In fact, this is one of the best jobs in the Foreign Office and Ségolène and I couldn’t wait to get here. Since we left Mexico towards the end of August we have been living in temporary accommodation in London and it’s nice to start getting settled again. We have now been here for just over a week and everyone has been very welcoming and we are sure we are going to enjoy it.

The brand new Embassy in the Torre Espacio is fantastic. The view from my office on the 40th floor is superb but, more importantly, the well-designed high-tech premises provide a clear image of Britain today: modern, dynamic, and outward looking. Whilst we are proud of our history, traditions and institutions, if Britain is to be taken seriously in today’s globalised world, we need to show that we are moving with the times.

Helping British businessmen to do business in Spain, and attracting Spanish investment to the UK, will be one of my key responsibilities here. Britain already exports over 17 billion euros worth of goods and services to Spain and, with over 700 UK companies present here, we are one of the largest investors. I was therefore glad that my first engagement outside the office was to attend an exhibition of British suppliers of security equipment. This is a sector in which we are a world leader and the Spanish visitors to the event were clearly impressed by the variety and quality of the equipment on show.

Today I made my first speech, at the opening of a British/Spanish seminar on better regulation. Regulation is, of course, necessary to protect citizens, consumers and the environment, and to allow for fair competition between businesses. However, excessive bureaucracy and inappropriate or ill-designed regulation can be a major burden for businesses and consumers alike. In the UK we have been working since the 1980’s to identify ways of reducing this burden and I’m convinced that this is one of the reasons why Britain now attracts more overseas investment than any other European country. I believe that we have a lot to share with Spain here.