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Simon Manley, the UK Ambassador for Spain, was at IE University’s Segovia campus last week to take part in a debate organized by members of the Debate Club. The debate focused on the future Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which is currently being negotiated by the US and the EU. The treaty, the basic content of which could be ready within the year according to most experts, aims to establish norms on both sides of the Atlantic designed to increase trade and investment between the EU and the US.

Manley talked about the importance of the treaty and negotiations which have been underway between the European Commission and the US Department of Trade since June 2013 with a view to fostering economic relations between both blocks. Participants in the event, organized by IE University’s Debate Club, included a number of IE professors. It was extremely enriching for the students, who participated actively, contributing multiple opinions in favor of and against the treaty, which is designed to change trade relations across the world.

Simon Manley

Simon Manley has been a member of HM Diplomatic Service since 1990. He took up post as British Ambassador to Spain and non-resident Ambassador to Andorra on 28 October 2013.

Before his posting to Madrid, Simon was Director Europe at the FCO (2011-2013), responsible for policy toward the EU, the UK’s bilateral relations with its European partners, and the FCO’s network of 57 European posts and more than 2000 staff. He served previously as the FCO’s Director Defence and Strategic Threats (2008-2011), leading the Government’s international counter-terrorist, counter-proliferation and counter-narcotics efforts, as head of Counter-Terrorism Policy (2006-2008) and as head of the EU Economic, Central Europe and Ireland department (2002-2006).

He has been posted to the UK’s Mission to the United Nations in New York (1993-1998), where he worked on Yugoslavia and UN reform, and has twice been seconded to the European Union: to the European Commission (2003), working on State Aids policy, and to the Council of the EU (1998-2002), working on Russia and Ukraine and then East Asia.

Simon was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2009 and a Commander of the Polish Order of Merit in 2004.

Simon read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford and International Relations at Yale University Graduate School. He is married to Maria Isabel Fernandez Utges Manley, an IP, competition and regulatory lawyer. They have three daughters: Chiara (2000), Melissa (2001) and Natasha (2008).

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