Dutch Ambassador to UK enjoys productive visit to island
Discussions on Brexit, sustainable energy and travel were high on the agenda as Dutch Ambassador to the UK Karel Van Oosterom visited the island yesterday.
Mr Van Oosterom, accompanied by a small delegation from the Dutch Embassy, arrived from London yesterday morning and initially spent time visiting Specsavers’ headquarters at La Villiaze.
He was later introduced to Lt-Governor Lt General Richard Cripwell, before meeting Policy & Resources president Lyndon Trott, other States representatives and local business figures at La Fregate Hotel over lunch and into the afternoon.
He flew to Jersey yesterday evening.
Mr Van Oosterom – whose only previous visit to Guernsey was with his now wife in 1982 – said that the trip, as well as having personal significance, was a good opportunity for the Netherlands and Guernsey to reconnect as much as possible following Brexit.
‘In recent years the Dutch Embassy has grown from 45 staff to about 100 as we have been helping the 160,000 Dutch people who live in the UK to adjust to Brexit,’ he said.
‘My visit today has been useful in identifying areas where there have been problems following Brexit, and how we can help and benefit each other.’
One area in which Guernsey was making better progress than the Netherlands, he said, was sustainable energy.
‘The plans that are in place for Guernsey’s energy strategy considering it is such a small island are impressive, and you are ahead of us.
‘We are working on more offshore wind farms and getting Dutch companies to invest in that is certainly an aim.’
Regarding tourism, Mr Van Oosterom said he backed the scheme which allows French nationals to travel to Guernsey on a day trip with just their national identity cards, and hoped that something similar with Dutch nationals could potentially be arranged in the future.
‘Brexit has made travel more difficult and expensive. Dutch people now need to spend 130 Euros on a passport to come to the UK, whereas they can use ID cards in the EU.’
He added that issues regarding ease of travel had also been raised during his visit to Specsavers.
‘We talked about the problems they had been having with recruiting EU personnel.
'Specsavers is big in the Netherlands and we want to help facilitate ease of recruitment if we can.’
Overall, he said, the visit had been productive.
‘We have had good discussions on finance, investment and different rules and regulations, and the talks have opened my eyes to the fact that a number of Guernsey companies do business in the Netherlands.
‘Hopefully we can build on this visit and our relationship into the future.’
