Trade Unions: FCO Co-operation (Hansard, 6 October 2003)

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

The FCO has been working to strengthen co-operation with British unions on issues of mutual interest overseas. As economic decisions are increasingly made in a global context, so British trade unions are more involved with international organisations and counterparts overseas. British trade unions have long played a wider international role in helping promote, among other things, democracy and human rights.

To identify areas of concern and to facilitate discussion, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the General Secretary of the TUC have agreed to set up an FCO/TUC International Advisory Council. This council will be led from the Foreign Office side by Dr MacShane, Minister for Europe, and will include participants from both the FCO and the trade union movement. To brief interested parties on this expanded co-operation, the FCO and TUC agreed to produce a leaflet setting down in pratical terms how British unions and the FCO are working together. This leaflet was circulated to delegates at the TUC General Congress last week. Copies of the leaflet, which have been placed in the Library of the House, will also be circulated to our embassies abroad and will be available on the official FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk).