Martin Harris

I took part earlier last week in the launch of a workshop designed to help the justice system here respond to an ever-increasing challenge: recovering illicitly acquired assets. The project is part of the UK’s wider effort to help tackle cross-border and organised crime. The workshop followed the UK Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke’s visit to […]

The King’s Speech is the film of the year, with 12 nominations for the Oscars and it goes on general release in Romania on Friday 11 February. I had a privileged pre-viewing at the Movieplex Cinema on Monday evening. I loved this film! It is a very moving story of a figure in British history […]

Last month I attended a debate hosted by the Institute for Popular Studies on the reform of the Romanian state. President Basescu and other speakers were addressing the question of what the shape and size of the state should be to meet the challenges of the 21st century – whether it was time to redefine […]

I have been in Romania for five months.  2010 was a difficult period for the Romanian economy, and for the British economy. But I am optimistic about 2011. Bilateral trade is rapidly increasing and last year showed the highest levels since Romania joined the EU, with an increase by more than 30%. I have seen […]

Today, 25 January, Scots around the world mark the birthday of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robert Burns. And not just Scots. Robert Burns is a poet with universal appeal. Like Romania’s national poet Mihai Eminescu, Burns was a Romantic whose poems describe experiences that we all share, and which have been translated into many different languages. […]

I was in Craiova in early December to look at the climate for British investment. I visited one of the largest British investments in the region, the plant run by Cummins Generator Technologies which manufactures electrical generators in a joint venture with Electroputere Craiova. Cummins have installed new equipment and refurbished the existing machines at […]

How can you reduce the budget deficit without putting up taxes or cutting expenditure? One measure can do more than most to fill the depleted public purse – stop the trade in illegal cigarettes. Each year the smuggling of cigarettes into the UK costs the British Treasury over two billion pounds in lost revenue. The […]

I was in Constanta last week for a exhibition at the Museum of History and Archeology entitled ‘British Constanta’. This describes the history of the British Danube-Black Sea Railway company which was the first to build a railway between the Danube at Cernovoda and the port of Constanta on the Black Sea in 1860. In […]

Last week I had the honour to award certificates to forty men and women of the Romanian armed forces that will soon be joining the rest of the Romanian contingent in Zabul Province in Afghanistan. They had just completed four weeks training with British military instructors as part of a course of several months spent […]