Sir Stephen Wall

Stephen Wall chaired the European Institute’s Advisory Board between 2010 and 2014. For 35 years, he had been a member of the British Diplomatic Service. He was Private Secretary to five British Foreign Secretaries, a Press Officer for Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister John Major.

His European experience includes five years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office European Community Department; two years as Britain’s Ambassador to the EU and four years as EU adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair and Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.

He has written two volumes of the Official History of Britain and the European Community covering 1963 to 1985. He has written two books about the UK’s membership of the EU: A Stranger in Europe (2008) and Reluctant European: Britain and the European Union from 1945 to Brexit (2020).

Stephen is also an activist for LGBT+ rights. For seven years, including four as Chair, Stephen was a Board member of the Kaleidoscope Trust, which supports activists in countries of the Commonwealth who campaign for the decriminalisation of same sex relationships and for trans rights.