UK perspectives on EU employment and social law

Date: Friday 15th June 6pm-7.30pm

Venue: Diamond Room, Macdonald Burlington, Burlington Arcade, 126 New Street, Birmingham, B2 4JQ

The FPC, EC and TUC's 'Single Market, Equal Rights?' Birmingham seminar will bring together a range of different British perspectives on the EU's role in employment and social law. The event will look at the current state of the debate in Brussels on employment and social rights, take the political temperature in the UK around the issue and set out the benefits and challenges for workers, businesses and the country.

Our panel will comprise:

• Emma Reynolds MP, Shadow Europe Minister
• Malcolm Harbour MEP, Chair European Parliament Single Market Committee
• Lorely Burt MP, Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party
• Rob Johnston, Midlands Regional Secretary, TUC
• Dr Anneliese Dodds, Lecturer in Public Policy, Aston University

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, FPC

The event is free and open to all.

Please contact events@fpc.org.uk to RSVP for this event

Download Single Market, Equal Rights? Birmingham event invitation (180 kilobyte PDF)

Date: Tuesday 22nd May, 6pm-7.30pm

Venue: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Room (off Westminster Hall), Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA

The FPC, with the kind support of the Open Society Foundations, is delighted to announce a major Westminster seminar to discuss some of the key issues addressed in our new Spotlight on Azerbaijan publication. The event will explore the major challenges Azerbaijan faces regarding democratic development, rule of law, media freedom, corruption and other human rights issues, while examining the impact of its international relationships and the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on its domestic politics.

Our panel will comprise:

• Emma Reynolds MP, Shadow Europe Minister
• Vugar Gojayev, Country Coordinator, Human Rights House-Azerbaijan
• Dr Leila Alieva, Director, the Center for National and International Studies (CNIS)
• Dennis Sammut, Director, LINKS

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The event is free and open to all. Copies of Spotlight on Azerbaijan will be available free of charge.

To RSVP please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download London launch invite (130 kilobyte PDF)

Date: Thursday 10th May, 3pm-4.30pm

Venue: Room Luxembourg, 1st floor, Eurocities Square de Meeûs 1, Brussels 1000

The FPC, kindly supported by the Open Society Institute-Brussels, is delighted to announce a major Brussels seminar to launch our new Spotlight on Azerbaijan publication and discuss some of the key issues that it addresses. The event will explore the major challenges Azerbaijan faces regarding democratic development, rule of law, media freedom, corruption and other human rights issues, while examining the impact of its international relationships and the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on its domestic politics.

Our panel will comprise:

• Richard Howitt MEP, Vice Chair of the European Parliament Human Rights Sub Committee and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Dr Leila Alieva, Director, the Center for National and International Studies (CNIS)
• Vugar Gojayev, Country Coordinator, Human Rights House-Azerbaijan
• Jacqui Hale, Senior Policy Analyst - EU External Relations, OSI-Brussels

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The event is free and open to all. Copies of Spotlight on Azerbaijan will be available free of charge.

To RSVP please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Spotlight on Azerbaijan: Brussels event (130 kilobyte PDF)

UK perspectives on EU employment and social law

Date: Friday 11th May 6pm-7.30pm

Venue: Hilton Cardiff, Kingsway, Cardiff, CF10 3HH

The FPC, EC and TUC's 'Single Market, Equal Rights?' Cardiff seminar will bring together a range of different British perspectives on the EU's role in employment and social law. The event will look at the current state of the debate in Brussels on employment and social rights, take the political temperature in the UK around the issue and set out the benefits and challenges for workers, businesses and the country.

Our panel will comprise:

• Kay Swinburne MEP, (Conservative)
• Derek Vaughan MEP, (Labour)
• Dr Nick Parsons, School of European Literature, Translation and Politics (EUROP), Cardiff University
• Emma Watkins, Regional Director, CBI Wales

Chair: Owen Tudor, Head of European Union and International Relations, TUC

The event is free and open to all.

Please contact events@fpc.org.uk to RSVP for this event

Download Cardiff event invitation (180 kilobyte PDF)

DATE: Monday 10th October 2011

TIME: 7.00-9.00pm

VENUE: Committee Room 6, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA 

(please use Cromwell Green Visitors Entrance, see map attached)

This event is now full

Speakers:

• Lord Alderdice, former Leader Alliance Party
• Jonathan Fryer, SOAS
• Firdevs Robinson, formerly BBC World Service

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

Introduction: Nick De Bois MP, Enfield North 

The Centre for Turkey Studies and Development (CTSD) and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) are please to host a Westminster seminar to discuss the current political situation in Turkey at the start of the AKP third term. It will examine both the progress Turkey has made in recent years and the challenges it still faces, particularly on media freedom and minority rights. With plans to change the Turkish Constitution high up the political agenda it is an important time for a UK audience to examine what can be done both in Turkey and abroad to strengthen the process of democratisation and political reform in this growing global power.

Event is free and open to all. For more information please contact Ibrahim Dogus of CTSD on 02083412021

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to:

events@fpc.org.uk

Date: Tuesday 12 July 2011

Time: 4.00-6.00pm

Venue: Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Victoria Embankment, Westminster, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

• Mark Lancaster MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for International Development
• Sheelagh Stewart, Director of the UK Government's Stabilisation Unit
• Prof Rosemary Hollis, Professor of Middle East Policy Studies & Director, Olive Tree Scholarship Programme, City University
• Richard Miller, CEO, ActionAid UK & International Director for Human Security, ActionAid International
• Hugh Ward, Head of Capability, Saab Training Systems UK

Chair: Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph

2011 has witnessed an unprecedented public demand for political transformation. As the world watches events unfold, many countries in the Middle East and North Africa are in a turbulent state of transition. From Tunisia to Egypt and from Yemen to Libya and Syria, the outcomes of these widespread social movements have yet to take real shape. They continue to undergo a process of evolution that has so far been neither accurately defined nor confidently articulated. In addition, there are the ongoing challenges of fragile states such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, where efforts to build peace, stability and prosperity have been misjudged or thwarted. What is clear however, is that ordinary people are beginning to voice their own demands for change, peace and stability. In this context, the task of developing a coherent foreign and development policy which identifies and supports local solutions to promote peacebuilding and long-term stability has alarming urgency.

This forthcoming FPC event supported by Saab seeks to explore some of the many different elements involved in reconstruction, building peace and promoting stability in states affected by conflict. It aims to draw on a variety of different strategies, perspectives and country-specific examples. The aim will be to highlight the complexity and diversity of approaches that are necessary to address the challenges of conflict and instability.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download FPC & Saab invitation - Which path to peace? (150 kilobyte PDF)

DATE: Tuesday 28 June 2011

TIME: 6.30-8.00pm

VENUE: Committee Room 3A, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW (Use Cromwell Green Visitors' entrance)

Speakers:

• Rt Hon Lord David Howell, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Kim Sengupta, Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, The Independent
• Dr Graeme Davies, Lecturer, International Security, University of Leeds
• Dr Rob Johns, Senior Lecturer, Dept of Politics, University of Essex
• Prof Jason Ralph, Professor in International Relations & Director of Research, University of Leeds

Chair: Sir Robert Worcester DL KBE, Chair & Founder, MORI

This Foreign Policy Centre event in partnership with the Universities of Essex and Leeds is the second in a series examining the relationship between UK foreign policy and public opinion. This event will provide a timely opportunity to debate public support for past, current and future UK military interventions overseas and the "special relationship" with the United States.

It is almost universally acknowledged that a hallmark of British foreign policy under Tony Blair's Labour government was liberal interventionism: a willingness to use force abroad for various purposes - humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping and regime change - even if British national interests were seemingly involved only indirectly. As Blair argued at the time: "…a political philosophy that does care about other nations - Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone - and is prepared to change regimes on their merits, should be gung-ho on Saddam."

A parallel argument could be said to underlie the present coalition government's decision to join military action in Libya. This suggests a cross-party consensus in favour of liberal interventionism. Yet, this raises questions: first, is elite political consensus on foreign policy in the UK as clear as it appears? What role should a UN mandate play in UK policymaking, especially when it clashes with US policy? In particular, will Labour in opposition maintain the same foreign policy approach? Second, where does the UK public stand? Is there general support for the principles underlying Labour's and now the coalition's seeming interventionism? What effect have the Afghanistan and Iraq wars had on British public opinion concerning military action, especially in light of the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), the related defence cuts and the current unprecedented levels of public support for the armed forces?

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Dr Rob Johns & Dr Graeme Davies' presentation (440 kilobyte PDF)

Date: Thursday 23 June, 3pm-5pm,

Venue: European Policy Centre, Résidence Palace, 155 rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium

As part of the FPC's global series of events following the launch of the recent Spotlight on Armenia publication, we are delighted to be able to partner with the European Policy Centre, to hold a seminar in the Brussels. The EPC and OSI Spotlight on Armenia event will debate the major challenges Armenia faces regarding democratic development, rule of law, media freedom, corruption and other human rights issues, while examining the impact of its international relationships on domestic politics.

Speakers:

• Peter Semneby, Former EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus(tbc)
• Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre
• Jacqui Hale, Senior Policy Analyst - EU External Relations, Open Society Institute-Brussels
• Paruyr Hovhannisyan, European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA)

Chair: Amanda Paul, Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre

To RSVP please email: v.belmega@epc.eu

Date: Wednesday 15 June 2011

Time: 6.00-7.45pm

Venue: Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Victoria Embankment, Westminster, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

• Stephen Twigg MP, Shadow Foreign Office Minister
• Sir Robert Worcester DL KBE, Chair and Founder, MORI
• Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor, The Times
• Dr Graeme Davies, University of Leeds
• Dr Rob Johns, University of Essex

Chair: Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, Think Global - The Development Education Association

This Foreign Policy Centre event being held in partnership with the Universities of Essex and Leeds will provide a timely opportunity to have a discussion, in broad terms, about the relationship between UK foreign policy and public opinion, including debating questions such as:

• What factors act to influence public opinion on UK foreign policy and foreign policy issues?
• Does public opinion influence foreign policy or respond to it (or both)?
• How do the UK government and other political parties measure public opinion or 'take the temperature' of foreign policy issues? How do they respond?
• Is public opinion on foreign policy generally more or less strongly felt than on domestic policy?
• Do the UK government and other political parties pay as much attention to public opinion about foreign policy issues as they do to domestic issues? If not, why not?
• Should governments pursue foreign policies that people want or those which are in their and the country's best interests? If these two are at odds, how can and do governments and political parties respond and how successful are they in doing so?

Download Dr Rob Johns & Dr Graeme Davies' presentation (450 kilobyte PDF)

Please click below to download a copy of Sir Robert Worcester's presentation for 'UK foreign policy and public opinion: What do we think, why and does it matter?' which took place on Wed 15 June 2011.

Download Sir Robert Worcester's presentation - 15 June 2011 (290 kilobyte PDF)