81 - Ambassador Peter Wilson: 'No race to the bottom after Brexit'

In episode 81 of ‘Betrouwbare Bronnen’ (Trusted Sources, as the ambassador calls it), Jaap Jansen has a conversation with Peter Wilson, ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Netherlands. “We are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe”, he says. “We are a European country. We want to have a very, very strong bilateral relationship with a country that we love, the Netherlands.” “The 31st of january is definitely a historic day. But there will be no singing and dancing in the British embassy here in The Hague." Wilson wants to move forward to a new partnership. "The one thing that is absolutely clear is: the transition period will end on the 31st of december.” By then, the UK wants a ‘Canada-style’ free trade agreement with the EU. Peter Wilson promises that the new UK wil not turn into a ‘Singapore on the Thames’. “On issues like environmental protection, workers protection and state aid, our standards are very, very high. In many cases our standards are higher than the average EU-standard and we want to keep it that way. This government came into power with a manifesto that promised to make Britain the best place to work in the world. And since 2001 we’ve had six state aid cases against us, compared to over 60 in Germany and over 40 in France. I think it’s really important to point out that there will be no race to the bottom. This is an opportunity for us to set high standards. There’s no reason to be afraid and particularly not for the Netherlands which also has a very competative economy.” The ambassador underlines the importance of working closely together on security. “We are your neighbour, your security is our security. Our commitment to that is unconditional.” This counts for interna land external security: “We both have good armed forces. They are incredibly effective and we’ve worked closely together in the world, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.” According to the ambassador, prince Harry will attend the Invictus Games in The Hague in may. “He is really, really comitted to these games. Harry has absolutely focused attention on these amazing people and the incredible sport they do and their extraordinary examples of heroïsm.” *** More episodes Episode 69 - Britse verkiezingen! PG Kroeger over 'the mother of parliaments' (in Dutch) Episode 52 - Hoe premier Mark Rutte premier David Cameron teleurstelde (in Dutch) Episode 32 - Churchill on Europe - biographers Andrew Roberts and Felix Klos (in English) Episode 30 - PG Kroeger over Delors en Thatcher (in Dutch) Episode 8 - Pim Waldeck over 'die gekke Britten' en Paul Rem over de Queen (in Dutch) Episode 3 - Peter Wilson and Brexit (this part is in English) *** This episode is made possible thanks to the European Commission and Weee Nederland ***  Timeline episode 81 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:55 - Part 1 00:17:41 - Part 2 00:40:04 - Outro 00:40:38 - End Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.