House of Commons Hansard Debates for 1 Jul 1992

EC Presidency

13. Ms. Quin : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a further statement on the priorities of the British presidency of the EC.

16. Mr. Dykes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the United Kingdom current policy priorities for the EC presidency.

Mr. Hurd : The House will debate that question tomorrow. We aim to complete the single market ; make progress toward limiting the scope of Community interventions ; complete future financing negotiations ; prepare for enlargement of the Community ; conclude, if possible, the GATT Uruguay round ; and build stronger

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relations with central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. All those matters were usefully discussed with the Commission in London this morning.

Ms. Quin : In view of the right hon. Gentleman's comments to the European Union of Women yesterday, is he worried that his priorities for the United Kingdom presidency will be blown off course by political spivs dressed in ermine?

Mr. Hurd : The hon. Lady is getting her news from headlines. I would not have dreamed of calling anyone in either House, or outside, a spiv or a gazumper. What I was criticising was the suggestion that the Prime Minister should have put himself in that position.

Mr. Dykes : Will my right hon. Friend confirm that to understand how the Community works some Members of this House, as well as people outside, could also do with an information pack? After recent hysterical attacks on the European Commission, will the Government remind hon. Members that the Commission--including the two British Commissioners--speaks with one voice and that the Council of Ministers of sovereign member states makes the decisions which are supplied and proposed by the Commission unless it is delegated legislation? It is a weird notion that some hon. Members on both sides of the House feel that the European central bank should be in London but that we should not join European monetary union.

Mr. Hurd : That question is an intriguing mix. It is important to make it clear that the Commission proposes and the Council of Ministers decides. What both the Commission and the Council need to do now--after the meeting in Lisbon and before they begin to discuss the merits of any proposal within the Community's competence--is to work out whether it is for the common good that the Community, rather than nation states, should do that. Unless it is clearly for the common good, it should be left to nation states.

Mr. Ernie Ross : Will the Secretary of State ensure that, during the British presidency, one of the highest priorities is given to support for the new Government of Israel and its determination to have a continued dialogue towards resolving the conflict there ? Will he also take the opportunity, on behalf of the House, to wish the new Israeli Government every success when it is formed ? I am sure that all hon. Members are pleased that that Government have won on their policies. Both Jews and Arabs in Israel have voted for policies which ensure that territorial compromise is the name of the game. We wish them every success in that continued dialogue.

Mr. Hurd : That is gracefully expressed by the hon. Gentleman, who has a keen and continuing interest in the Palestinian problem. We shall do our best during our presidency to support the peace process and I join the hon. Gentleman in hoping that it will now resume with renewed impetus.

Sir Peter Hordern : To deal with the high level of fraud in the European Community, particularly in relation to the common agricultural policy, will my right hon. Friend ensure that the provisions of the Maastricht treaty which deal with the extra powers given to the European Parliament to investigate the European Commission are carried through successfully ?

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Mr. Hurd : Indeed, it is important that the provisions in the Maastricht treaty that enable the Parliament and, indeed, the Court of Auditors to do more, should be put into effect. We see no contradiction between that and the exercise that I have already described of restricting Community institutions' scope for intervention.

Mr. Kaufman : Consequent on the right hon. Gentleman's response to my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Ross), will the Minister express the anger of this House at the admission by the outgoing Prime Minister of Israel that he deliberately intended to sabotage the Madrid peace process ? Will the right hon. Gentleman offer his congratulations to Mr. Rabin, not only on his excellent victory, but on his stated determination to speed up the talks with the Palestinians to try to achieve a settlement as quickly as possible ? Above all, will he congratulate the electorate of Israel on voting to rescue the true identity of their country ?

Mr. Hurd : I have not seen Mr. Shamir's statement, so I cannot comment on that. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has sent a warm message of congratulations and support to Mr. Rabin. We hope that the Government of Israel will be able, with the co-operation of others, which is also necessary--I am thinking of Syria and Palestine--to set the peace process going again with renewed impetus. That is important for us all. What was the right hon. Gentleman's last point?

Mr. Kaufman : My last point was about the decision of the Israeli electorate.

Mr. Hurd : On the whole, I am in favour of congratulating electorates, particularly our own.

EC Foreign Policies

14. Mr. Knox : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next proposes to have discussions with his European Community partners concerning the development of common European Community foreign policies.

Mr. Hurd : I meet my European Community partners regularly to discuss the strengthening of intergovernmental co-operation on foreign policy.

Mr. Knox : Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Maastricht treaty will enable Britain, through Europe, to exert much more influence in international affairs and thus protect British interests much more effectively?

Mr. Hurd : What the Maastricht treaty does in that respect is to underline and strengthen the co-operation between member states of the Community in foreign affairs. It takes foreign affairs out of any possible conveyor belt into integration with the Commission's monopoly of initiative and the jurisdiction of the court. Like my hon. Friend, I believe that that is the right framework in which Community members should conduct their essential work together on foreign policy.

Mr. Galloway : Will the Foreign Secretary try to convince the other Community Foreign Ministers to condemn the decision of the Government of Norway to resort to international piracy by walking out of the International Whaling Commission, which is meeting this week in Glasgow in my constituency? Does he agree that

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Norway's decision to return to the killing fields, thus turning the oceans of the world into bloodbaths with the tracking and butchering of those beautiful and important creatures, makes Norway singularly unsuitable for membership of the European Community?

Mr. Hurd : My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has made our position clear before the conference. We shall seek to persuade others, inside and outside the Community, that our position is reasonable and right.

Mr. Bellingham : Will my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary turn his attention to the letter in today's edition of The Times from the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Dr. Karadzik, explaining why they have initiated a ceasefire? Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is an extremely welcome development?

Mr. Hurd : Of course I do. I congratulate The Times on resuming something of its ancient role in receiving such letters from all over the world. What counts is not the letter to The Times or radio broadcasts to the same effect, but whether the policy works on the ground. That is being tested in these hours. I hope, as the United Nations hopes, that within the next day the United Nations commander, General Mackenzie, will be able to tell us and others that as a result of the decision to which my hon. Friend referred Sarajevo airport is open for a regular flow of supplies. We shall then send in our supplies. It will clearly be important to continue that flow, to ensure that the road to Sarajevo is open and that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Red Cross can distribute supplies in Sarajevo. I hope that my hon. Friend is right and that the letter in The Times and similar statements elsewhere will lead to the permanent relief of Sarajevo.

Cambodia

15. Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the progress of the peace process in Cambodia.

Mr. Goodlad : Much progress has been made towards the implementation of the comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodia conflict. The United Nations transitional authority in Cambodia--UNTAC--was established on 28 February ; repatriation of those Cambodians now in camps on the Thai- Cambodian border is continuing and the international community has pledged some $880 million of aid to help reconstruct Cambodia. We remain concerned, however, at the continuing unwillingness of the Khmer Rouge to co-operate with UNTAC.

Mr. Mullin : Given that the failure of the Khmer Rouge to co-operate was predicted and predictable, does the Foreign Secretary regret that Britain went along with the Governments of China and the United States in sustaining the Khmer Rouge for a long period in the 1980s? Does he agree that sooner or later the Khmer Rouge will have to be confronted?

Mr. Goodlad : I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman, who I know takes an interest in these matters, is historically less than his usually accurate self. We did not sustain the Khmer Rouge. We remain concerned by its unwillingness

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to co-operate with UNTAC, notably in moving to phase 2 of the ceasefire, and we have registered our concerns with the Khmer Rouge, most recently in the declaration that I made at the international conference on the reconstruction of Cambodia in Tokyo last week. It is vital that all factions work fully and unconditionally with UNTAC so as to move to phase 2 of the ceasefire as planned. We are determined to exert the maximum pressure on the Khmer Rouge to comply with its commitments under the Paris accords. The Supreme National Council will meet in Phnom Penh tomorrow to assess the situation. Thereafter, the United Nation's Secretary-General's special representative will report to the secretary-general and the Security Council. Together with our international partners, we shall then need to consider what further action is required.

Mr. Bowis : Does my hon. Friend agree that we can keep pressure on the Khmer Rouge only if the peacefkeeping forces are provided with adequate troops? Can he confirm that the promises from the United Nations have now been fulfilled, because if the United Nations cannot control the Khmer Rouge the people of Cambodia certainly cannot and we shall be back to the real killing fields of Cambodia all too soon?

Mr. Goodlad : My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is intended that UNTAC should consist of just under 16,000 military personnel, 3, 000 police, and up to 4,000 civilians, together with 60,000 locally recruited personnel. The cost are estimated at just under $1.7 billion. The deployment of UNTAC is on course, and most UNTAC troops are now in the country.

South Africa

17. Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with representatives from South Africa on the progress of dismantling apartheid.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd : We maintain a close dialogue with all the parties in South Africa. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister keeps in contact with President de Klerk and Mr. Mandela. We are also in close touch with Chief Buthelezi.

Mr. Pike : As the former Prime Minister said in this House that the Government of post-partheid South Africa would have to be acceptable to all the people of South Africa, will the British Government make it clear to President de Klerk that when negotiations resume after their suspension it is crucial that the power of veto be overcome? The veto must not preserve apartheid and privilege in a different form in post-apartheid South Africa.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd : It is precisely because the future Government of South Africa must be accepted by all the parties there that this question is a matter for the Convention for a Democratic South Africa to decide. It would be quite wrong of me to comment on the matter.

Mr. Temple-Morris : As part of this process, is my hon. Friend entirely satisfied that the South African security forces are doing all that they can to police the Zulu hostels in the townships? If he shares my concern about that--it is widely shared--will he communicate it to the South Africa Government?

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Mr. Lennox-Boyd : It is clearly most important that the South African security forces should police those areas in the way that my hon. Friend has described. The South African Government are in close contact with my right hon. Friends, who have discussions with them on these points.

Mrs. Dunwoody : Does the Minister agree that unless Her Majesty's Government make it clear to the South African Government that the South African security forces must be wholly divorced from political incitement to violence--that is the only way in which anyone can ever begin to negotiate--there will be a tradgedy to which the inaction of the British Government will have contributed?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd : My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary dealt extensively with that point. Obviously, the escalation of violence is the real and terrible problem in South Africa which is preventing meaningful negotiations. My right hon. Friend said that he was in touch with the Foreign Minister of South Africa only yesterday and discussed the very matters to which the hon. Lady has drawn attention.

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Lithuania

18. Mr. John Marshall : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about relations between Britain and Lithuania.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : Our relations with Lithuania are very good.

Mr. Marshall : Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that good relations require efforts by both countries? While welcoming our Government's steps to improve relations with Lithuania, may I ask whether they will make representations to the Government of Lithuania about their failure to compensate my constituent Mr. Salt for the value of property in Lithuania expropriated in 1940?

Mr. Hogg : My hon. Friend has a point. He puts the case for his constituent extremely persuasively and has corresponded with me on more than one occasion. There are problems in that Lithuania's domestic legislation puts a barrier in the way of his constituent's claim. However, I shall see what we can properly do to impress on the Government of Lithuania the consequence of their prohibition.

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