31st January 2013
Last week we hosted a seminar in Bucharest on social media for colleagues from Embassies across the region and London. The aim was to learn, discuss and share experience about the new opportunities and challenges that social media like Facebook and Twitter, blogging and YouTube, present for our work. This is a new and unfamiliar […]
19th January 2013
The Foreign Office’s Minister Alistair Burt called Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean earlier this evening to express the British Government’s sincere condolences on the death of a Romanian citizen who was confirmed among the casualties of the terrorist attack in Algeria. I would like to add my own heartfelt condolences to his family and to […]
15th January 2013
Today I marked Mihai Eminescu’s birthday, Romania’s national poet, by reading one of his iconic poems and talking about Romania’s national heritage and the embassy’s ‘green agenda’. You can read more about Eminescu here.
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31st December 2012 Bucharest, Romania
The British Embassy joined forces with Bucharest’s leading homeless charity Casa Ioana on Thursday 20th December to serve food to the homeless of Bucharest. On a sub zero and snowy December morning at the main train station in Bucharest, volunteers from the Embassy worked together with the staff from Casa Ioana. The team served …
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27th December 2012
Shortly after the Romanian Government presented its programme I tweeted on @HMAMartinHarris my pick of the top five priorities to be taken forward in 2013. In five tweets: 1. Implementing the IMF agreement. RO has done well on fiscal consolidation. Now it’s time to progress on structural reforms and tax evasion. 2. Judicial reform. Implementing […]
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27th November 2012
On Tuesday last week I gave up my seat as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Romania to Nicoleta Ghita, a very confident and capable young lady from Sector 5 in Bucharest. This was part of Child Takeover Day – an initiative that started in the UK and has been brought to Romania for the first time […]
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26th November 2012
I gave a lecture to a very engaged and smart group of students at the Institute for International Relations at Cluj University on Wednesday last week. You can find the text here. It draws on my experience working in countries in transition over the last twenty years, and draws the conclusion that the concept of […]
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25th October 2012
Across Europe, from Romania to the UK – more specifically from Sighisoara to Shropshire – there is a fraternity between the fire services of our different countries. On Saturday I was privileged to attend a ceremony to hand over three fire engines donated by the people of Shropshire for use in Mures and Brasov counties […]
24th October 2012
The Foreign Secretary gave a speech yesterday setting out his vision for the future of Europe. Let me just highlight three points which I think are particularly relevant here in Romania. Firstly, William Hague highlights the power of EU enlargement in entrenching democracy and the rule of law in Europe after the Cold War. And […]
18th October 2012
179 years ago today the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, outlawing the slave trade after years of courageous campaigning by William Wilberforce and others who spoke out against the exploitation of men and women and opposed the vested economic interests in this vile business. Unfortunately this trade continues today, here in Europe. Last […]