Cornwall Council to keep its office in Brussels after the Brexit transition period
Bosses say it's so they can continue to 'reach out to friends and partners in Europe'
The leader of Cornwall Council says that the authority will keep its office in Brussels open even after the Brexit transition period ends in January.
Julian German made the comments in response to a question about the office from councillor John Fitter at a meeting of the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee.
Cllr Fitter asked if the council was still maintaining the office in Brussels “so we can continue liaising with our European friends and partners”. He said he hoped that the council was keeping the office after the UK’s departure from the EU.
Cornwall Council has had a base in Brussels for several years and currently shares the cost with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership and Combined Universities in Cornwall.
The contract for the office was last tendered in 2019 and was valued at ÂŁ240,000 for two years.
Cllr German said: “The office in Brussels, I can confirm that we still have that and we share the cost with the Local Enterprise Partnership and Cornwall universities.
“I think it is really important that we are continuing to reach out to our friends and partners in Europe, that we continue to have access for our businesses and that they have that intelligence and that we can help to make trade and relationships as smooth as possible post Brexit.”
Earlier this year the Conservative group at Cornwall Council called for the Brussels office to be scrapped.
When an advert was published for a new head of the office Tory group leader Linda Taylor said: “Let’s take the Government’s money and instead of benefiting Cornwall let’s spend it on an office in Brussels. This is simply outrageous, particularly at this time, could someone tell this Lib Dem/Indie administration we have left the EU?”
Cllr Fitter also asked how the council was preparing for the end of the transition period on January 1st.
Cllr German said: “In terms of Brexit and understanding what is going to happen it is difficult because of not having a deal and not understanding if there will be a deal or there will be no deal.
“Currently there are a number of examples that we raised with the MPs last Friday where we have got immediate concerns. For example around the movement of fish and animals we think there is the potential need for 19 new officers to be employed in that area as expected the licensing around fish exports and the way we are expecting that to be.
“So there are a number of immediate issues from January 1 but there are also the large issues about what happens with Common Agriculture Policy, that will have a huge impact on Cornwall, and we also had the announcement of the Shared Prosperity Fund which was extremely disappointing.
“So we move out from the programmed European funding for the seven years to 2020, we were promised a replacement programme that would be of the same value, and we have got levelling up on top of that as well, but we are looking at a very small Shared Prosperity Fund next year so in economic development terms there is going to be a huge gap in the funding that we have been receiving and what we are looking to receive next year.
“Coming out of Covid that is going to make it even more challenging for our businesses so a real worry about what is going to happen post Brexit.”