Deputy Prime Minister in Paris

I said last week that I would talk to you about our Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s visit on 14 November.

Nick is the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK. He is a former member of the European Parliament, speaks fluent French and so is able to have his lunchtime discussions with French Prime Minister Ayrault fully in French.

Written version (continued)

He knows a lot about France and French positions in the European Union. Of course they talked a lot about the big issues at the moment including the EU budget negotiations that will be going on this week.

While he was in Paris, Nick Clegg also wanted to see for himself how France organises technical vocational training, helping young people get a skill then use it into a job. And then we went to a technical lycée in the East of Paris to see young French students learning scientific glass blowing, which is a very skilled profession.

These young people were doing part time at the college and part time in a company preparing them for the world of work. The Deputy Prime Minister was very interested to see that. In the UK as well, apprenticeships are a big priority for the government and he took away some useful experience from this.

He also called on the Finance Minister Moscovici, who himself was of course a Europe Minister and was able again to discuss the situation in Europe.

And then, we had a reception here to celebrate 40 years of the Franco-British Council, which is a group essentially of private sector people, set up to widen the discussions and debates between people in the two countries, that after 40 years is still doing very good work and we were delighted to celebrate that at the Embassy in the evening.