Talk on Malta's accession to the EU

Alastair Sutton, a partner at the Brussels office of the international law firm, White & Case, will be speaking at a business breakfast meeting at the Westin Dragonara Resort on Friday, 3 December at 8.30am. His talk will be centred on "The challenge of Malta's accession to the EU", and he will be taking questions from guests at the breakfast.

Mr Sutton's Brussels practice focuses on EU single market law, particularly competition, state aid, intellectual property, the free movement of goods, financial services, direct and indirect taxation, monetary law, shipbuilding, energy policy, environmental protection, agriculture, high technology industry, automobiles, food, drink, tobacco, and textiles. He represents clients before the EU Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Courts of Justice in Luxembourg and Geneva. Mr Sutton has also represented a number of governments in dispute settlement procedures before the WTO in Geneva.

From 1973 to 1989, Alastair Sutton was an official of the EC Commission. He was an EC trade negotiator for the GATT multifibres arrangement and for the Tokyo Round, a diplomat in the EC's Tokyo delegation between 1979 and 1984, and legal adviser to the Commission Vice President for the Single Market (Lord Cockfield) between 1985 and 1989. Mr Sutton's last position in the Commission was as head of the financial services department.

The law firm, White & Case, was founded in New York in 1901, and has offices world-wide. Their clients are public and privately-held commercial businesses and financial institutions, governments, and state-owned entities. The Brussels office, where Mr Sutton is based, provides in-depth counsel on EU and member State requirements governing trade, competition, the environment, labour, and intellectual property, and on-going analysis of the specific regulations that affect a particular market sector.

Those who wish to attend are asked to call the Zimmerman House Group on 324525.