UK and Europe – moving together?

Public meeting with 3 outstanding speakers

Oxford for Europe Event.

This was held on 22nd May 2025
at New Road Baptist Church, Oxford.

We live in swift moving, difficult and dangerous times. There are huge uncertainties for all of us, and especially for young people. Brexit has been profoundly damaging for their prospects, and few politicians seem to care about undoing the damage. Events across the Atlantic have magnified the challenge but have made it more compelling than ever to work with our European neighbours. We want to create better opportunities, with an eye to achievable goals such as Erasmus and a Youth Mobility Scheme, as well of course as preserving trade with our closest allies.

The EU’s founding principle, to promote peace and prosperity, has never been more important.

The meeting was held 3 days after the UK-EU ‘reset’ talks.

We had a brilliant panel assembled to discuss these issues and how we can contribute.

Their presentations were followed by questions and a lively discussion.

Our speakers:

Calum Miller MP

Calum Miller has been the Liberal Democrat MP for the new constituency of Bicester and Woodstock since July 2024.

Calum, a graduate of University College, Oxford, was in his previous career a public policy academic and a senior civil servant. Between 2009 and 2012 he was the principal private secretary to Gus O’Donnell, then head of the Civil Service, and Nick Clegg, then deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats.

From 2012, he helped to establish the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, as its first Chief Operating Officer. As Senior Fellow of Practice, Calum co-directed the School’s international programmes for public leaders and led research projects on national education systems (such as RISE) and government performance (such as InCiSE).

He was elected to Oxfordshire County Council for Otmoor in 2021 and was appointed the council’s cabinet member for finance in the Oxfordshire Fair Deal Alliance.

Since entering parliament he has spoken out on European matters among many others, and he is his party’s Foreign Affairs spokesman.

Further info:

On Bluesky: @calummillerld.bsky.social
On Twitter/X: @CalumMillerLD
Profile: https://members.parliament.uk/member/5346/career

Baroness Royall

Jan Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, sits in the House of Lords for the Labour Co-operative Party. A former adviser to Neil Kinnock, Baroness Royall was appointed to the House in 2004. From October 2008, she was Leader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months of Gordon Brown’s premiership. In parliament her interests have included education, health, European affairs and the Middle East.

Baroness Royall has worked for the EU Commission and was head of its office in Wales. She was vice-president of the party of European Socialists from 2012 to 2018. She is vice-president of the Labour Movement for Europe.

Since 2017 she has been Principal of Somerville College, Oxford. In that role she oversaw an expansion of scholarship provision at her College and initiated outreach to local primary schools. She served as Chair of the Conference of Colleges from 2020 to 2023 and for two years before that was Deputy Chair. In 2021, she led a campaign for Somerville to become a College of Sanctuary, offering a pathway to Oxford for students displaced by war or internal unrest. The University of Oxford later adopted this campaign.

Further info:

On Twitter/X: @PrincipalSomOx
Profile: https://members.parliament.uk/member/3703/career

Cecilia Jastrzembska

Cecilia Jastrzembska is a Senior Policy Advisor at Director level, contracting with the UK Government. She is the Founder of EM UK Women. Cecilia is an award winning public speaker, longstanding feminist advocate and political journalist, published in over 20 newspapers and academic publications.

She writes and speaks on violence against women and girls, European affairs, the climate crisis and AI, and was a shortlistee for Cog X’s Tech Regulation Award for her work on mitigating algorithmic bias. Her other roles include being a 50:50 Parliament Ambassador, an Executive Committee member of the Young European Socialists (65 member org), Grassroots For Europe Board member, and Fabian Society’s Leading Women mentee.

She is a past president of the Young European Movement.

Her chosen title: Operation Reset To Operation Action

Further info:

LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/ceciliaeve
Twitter / X: https://x.com/CeciliaEve4/