The State of Europe – An Insider’s Guide

On 27th April 2016, we hosted dinner with Mats Persson and Nigel Casey to discuss European issues, touching on the European Referendum, Syria, Russia’s role in Foreign affairs and the immigration crisis.

Nigel Casey is currently seconded to No 10 Downing Street as the Prime Minister’s Private Secretary for Foreign Policy and has twenty years’ prior diplomatic experience. Between 2003 and 2006, he was based in Russia as Head of Foreign & Security Policy before moving on to New Delhi as Deputy High Commissioner between 2007-2011. He was then appointed British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2011 before returning to the UK for his current position in the cabinet in 2013. Nigel has also spent time as Private Secretary to the HM Ambassador in the United States and as a Vice Consul in South Africa.

Nigel is fluent in Russian, Bosnian, and French and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford University.

Mats Persson was first appointed as a special adviser to David Cameron in 2015. He was previously director of Open Europe, a think tank which promotes ideas for political and economic reform in Europe 2010-2015.

Mats has written and published on a broad range of issues relating to Europe and the European Union including the eurozone crisis, institutional reform, EU budget, financial regulation, trade policy, German politics and Britain’s position in Europe. He is a regular commentator in UK and international media and has appeared numerous times on BBC Newsnight, Sky News, and other European and international TV and radio outlets.

Mats grew up in Bankeryd, Sweden. He received a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University in Virginia, United States, where he attended on an athletic scholarship for Basketball. He received his master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.