IN A thought-provoking address to business representatives and some States members this week, the Channel Islands’ Brussels adviser suggested that Guernsey really ought to decide what it wants from Europe and then plan accordingly.

On the face of it, that was sound advice. For too long the EU has been the island’s elephant in the room – omnipresent but ignored.

That is changing, especially with the opening of the CI Brussels office, but for all that the States are considering a strategic plan, Guernsey the financial services centre has yet to decide where it wants to be internationally in 2020, let alone work out how it is to get there.

So Alastair Sutton’s presentation at St James was a timely reminder that there is work to be done and decisions to be taken. In particular, he believes the choice is between having a structured relationship with the EU or approaching each engagement with it on a piecemeal basis, his so-called ‘pragmatic’ approach.

Many in the audience, however, left with the clear impression that he favoured a more formal approach, an active engagement, and that gravely worried them.

Until Mr Sutton’s public comments, the various sectors believed that they were merely dealing with a  regulator, in the guise of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, that had gone feral and was turning on the industry because it could and no one was controlling it.

Now, however, sector leaders are wondering whether the ramped up regulatory onslaught is because the Policy Council has already decided more closely to align Guernsey with the EU and, in effect, adopt its rules and regulations.

And although such a sea change should involve the States, the unwanted dismantling of a treasured institution like the GTA University Centre has been engineered by a handful of individuals without regard to the democratic process.

Yet while the eurozone is a formidable economy, it is by no means the only market for Guernsey or its products and no work has been published by the Policy Council on where the island’s best prospects lie.

If there is to be a debate on this, regulators and politicians must involve the industry before committing the island.