Nicole King – Role of the Embassy

I first interviewed Hugh Elliott, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Spain, shortly after he arrived in 2019.  The past 5 years have presented many challenges, between Brexit and Covid but I think he can feel very proud of his accomplishments when he looks back on his time here. 

I have had the privilege of visiting Hugh Elliott at the Embassy in Madrid for a few interviews this year, each one an eye opener to the scope of issues that the Embassy deals with on a daily basis.

In the first get-together the Ambassador confirmed that mutual investment, business wise between the UK and Spain, is still very buoyant, in spite of Brexit.  In the second, we broached the subjects of education and safety.

Education is an area that worries many of us who have children studying in Spain but who may want them to go back to school or to University in the UK, or vice versa.

The Ambassador explained that this has been a topic of great concern and interest for the Embassy also.  It was an immense pleasure for him to confirm therefore that at the back end of last year the Embassy finally managed to negotiate a treaty, whereby Spain would recognise the UK ‘s academic qualifications at A level for example and the UK would recognise Spanish qualifications.  The negotiations apparently weren’t too complex as both countries wanted to find solutions; nevertheless, aligning the two systems logically took its time and many months of meetings.

You could see that the Ambassador was well chuffed to reach an agreement on this issue, as well as resolving an illegal firearm issue , but more on that next week!