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European Forest Institute (Legal Capacities) Order 2005

I have one small comment to make on the order. I note that we are in the business of proliferating European agencies and negotiating where they are placed. I also note, without comment, that many other institutes have not yet been established. However, from informal conversations that I have had with people assigned to some of the recently established agencies, it would appear that there are concerns about their positioning. While the placing of such agencies outside capital cities and at some distance from airports may serve the constituency interests of leading members of the governments concerned, Her Majesty’s Government may wish to consider how good international officials will be recruited to the new agencies if they are asked to base themselves and their families at some distance from a useful international school and international airport from which they can get back to their own countries. Her Majesty’s Government ought perhaps to feed that consideration into the mill on future occasions.