Europe is essential to every Member State's position in the modern world, "but I do not think we are heading in one single direction, for example to become a United States of Europe", says Lord Alan Watson, a member of the House of Lords.

Lord Alan Watson is a member of the House of Lords, Prince of Wales Business Leaders' Forum and head of CTN Communications. After Cambridge, Lord Watson had a prolific career in journalism at BBC World Service, BBC 1 and BBC 2 and was also responsible for Media at the European Commission. Former member of the European Parliament's High Level Group on Romania during the EU accession process, Lord Watson was awarded in 2004 the Commander's Grand Cross of the Romanian Order of Merit for his significant contribution and in 2011 the University of Bucharest awarded him the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa. Lord Watson’s wide breadth of professional and scholarly experience makes him a truly engaging speaker and he accepted to discuss UK’s foreign policy and the current European Union climate. Andra Alexandru: What is your view on UK’s policy towards the European Union, in the light of the recent developments related to the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance, which the UK did not sign?

Lord Watson: I regret the fact that the veto was used. After all, it has been British policy in the European Union to enlarge the European Union to its present numbers, and at the end of all that we were isolated and we were the only country that actually opposed, so I think that was unfortunate. There were however good reasons for it.

The British economy is inconceivable without the role of the City of London. In a sense, what manufacturing is to Germany or what agriculture is to France, the City of London is to Great Britain, and we were nervous that the regulations which wer