European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Stabilisation and Association Agreement) (Republic of Serbia) Order 2011
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Stabilisation and Association Agreement) (Republic of Serbia) Order 2011.
Relevant documents: 13th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, the stabilisation and association agreement is a mechanism that has developed to cope with the many problems of the states in the former Yugoslavia. The international agreement between Serbia and the European Communities and its member states was signed on 29 April 2008. The treaty has not yet entered into force but will do so once Serbia, the EU and all 27 member states have approved it in accordance with their own procedures. Fourteen EU member states have ratified the SAA so far, as well as Serbia, which ratified on 9 September 2008. With regard to the EU ratification, the European Parliament gave its consent on 19 January this year and a further unanimous Council decision will be required in order for the EU to conclude the SAA. The order is a necessary step towards the UK’s ratification of the SAA as it will provide for implementation of the SAA as an EU treaty.
The principal effect of the draft order is: first, to ensure that the powers under Section 2 of the European Communities Act 1972 will be available to give legal effect to any necessary provisions of the agreement; and, secondly, to permit any expenditure arising from the SAA to be charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund.
Enlargement has been one of the European Union’s biggest success stories, enabling stability, security and prosperity across our continent. The prospect of EU membership was an important factor in supporting the peaceful transition to democracies in Greece, Spain, Portugal and central and eastern Europe. It is a vital tool in helping us to spread our values and freedoms. A larger EU promotes business and our economy by providing access to a bigger market with reduced trade barriers.
However, enlargement must be based upon conditionality. A country may join the EU only once it has met all the criteria for membership and has undertaken the necessary reforms to do so. That applies to Serbia and all western Balkans countries, as it does elsewhere. Serbia must adapt to the required EU conditions, not the other way round.
The implementation of the SAA is an important step in the fulfilment of that conditionality. The SAA recognises Serbia as a “potential candidate” for the EU. It is not a reward; instead it is an instrument to enable Serbia to move forwards. It sets out key objective political and economic criteria which Serbia must meet. That progress towards eventual EU membership is regularly monitored via a closer partnership with the EU, under the EU’s stabilisation and association process. A track record of SAA implementation is one of the requirements for Serbia to move further towards achieving full candidate status.
Full, effective, and transparent implementation of democracy and the rule of law is an example of the criteria that Serbia will have to meet as an essential condition of the SAA, and for eventual EU membership. Others include good co-operation on regional issues with its neighbours and international obligations, conformity with common human rights law including the protection of minorities, and full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—the ICTY. I underline that last point. Serbia’s interim agreement and SAA were signed by EU member states at the General Affairs and External Relations Council on 29 April 2008. However, a decision was taken at the same time to block the implementation of the interim agreement and the ratification procedures of the SAA pending member states’ assessment that Serbia was fully co-operating with the ICTY.
Following successive positive reports from the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor Brammertz, member states agreed to proceed with SAA ratification at the European Council in June 2010. The UK’s assessment is that Serbia is still continuing to co-operate fully with the ICTY, as confirmed by Chief Prosecutor Brammertz’s latest report in December last year. We are therefore content that the UK should proceed with ratification.
Since the conflicts of the 1990s, Serbia has made significant progress, particularly in establishing good relations with its neighbours. This needs to continue. The draw of European integration will continue to be a crucial factor in motivating and enabling Serbian political leaders to continue to agree and implement the necessary reforms and to continue with the process of reconciliation with the rest of the region. The European Union without the western Balkans would for ever have a disillusioned and disenchanted hole near its centre.
I am satisfied that the order is compatible with the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. I beg to move.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, Her Majesty’s Opposition strongly support the EU stabilisation and association agreement process with the countries of the western Balkans. We recognise that the measure before us is a stepping stone to Serbia’s possible eventual membership of the European Union if, as the Minister has stressed, the criteria are met. Regional co-operation is clearly an important part of that process and must continue on a satisfactory basis. We agree that it is important to support the process of peace building in the region and that the agreement is an important building block for future co-operation among those countries.
As I understand it, the period over which the agreement will run is for a maximum of six years. During that period, it is anticipated that there will be regular political dialogue and a commitment to promote regional co-operation and good relations. The agreement pledges support to,
“democratic, economic and institutional reforms”.
As the Minister said, Serbia must adapt to the EU’s conditions, not the other way round. That reinforces the message of conditionality.
What mechanisms does the Minister envisage for this regular political dialogue? Will that regular political dialogue be with the European Commission or with the European Parliament or with the Council of Ministers, including Ministers from this country? Further, what support for democratic, economic and institutional reforms does the Minister have in mind under the agreement? Will that be financial support for building up these institutions? Will such financial support, if it is forthcoming, come from the European Union directly, or will it involve a United Kingdom contribution—if so, can the Minister tell us what that contribution will be?
One might be a little more confident if the Minister could tell us something about the possible involvement of non-governmental organisations, including human rights organisations, at either EU or United Kingdom level. I notice that the Explanatory Memorandum to the order states that,
“this instrument … will have no impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies”.
If that implies that there will be no direct contact with, for example, British non-governmental organisations or British business, that is something of a gap in the sort of dialogue that we would hope for. After all, the stress is not just on Government to Government: it is very much on the institutional and the economic reforms. We on these Benches think—and I am sure that the Committee would agree—that that sort of dialogue should involve our NGOs and the business community.
My last question concerns the last point that the Minister raised on the ICTY: that Foreign Office Ministers would ensure that Parliament is kept informed. Will the Minister tell us how it is proposed that such information will pass from the ministerial desk to your Lordships' House?
Baroness Falkner of Margravine
My Lords, the Liberal Democrats also support this stabilisation and association agreement with Serbia. I recall that it is about 17 years since I found myself in Republika Srpska trying to get on a bus along with chicken farmers and various other internally displaced people in the west Balkans to go to Belgrade in order to find out what the Helsinki Watch committees in Belgrade were trying to do at the time, when human rights were so severely repressed. It was a searing experience. The people of Serbia have gone through nearly two decades of difficulty since then. It is right that this approach is followed now to bring them into the broader community of nations in the European Union.
The order provides the EU and Serbia with a political and legal framework for mutual relations, which has contributed to making access negotiations more robust, as my noble friend pointed out. This will, if Serbia co-operates in fullness and humility, make the fact of accession a tangible reality.
Other than agreeing with the order, will my noble friend reassure us on two or three counts? He said that Serbia was co-operating fully, but we know that the Dutch maintain the veto against this order because of their experiences in Srebrenica and their lack of confidence in the Serbian Government that Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic will ever be delivered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. While there may be full co-operation, it is odd to see that full co-operation does not deliver the arrests of war criminals. Can we be reassured that the British Government are assisting the Serbian security and military authorities in training or other measures such as intelligence co-operation to help locate these war criminals and bring them to justice in The Hague?
Our other concern is about the domestic reform agenda. We know that levels of corruption in the bureaucracy are extremely high in Serbia and that political reform of the relationship of political parties to Members of Parliament is desirable. They are a long way away from attaining the democratic standards that we would expect in a European Union country. Press freedoms are still rather restricted and journalists continue to be intimidated and harassed. The situation of gay people leaves a lot to be desired and there is still an undercurrent of homophobia in Serbian society, which the Government do not seem to be tackling in any kind of robust framework: they appear to be tolerating rather than tackling it. The status of the Roma people is, of course, as bad as it can be in some parts of eastern Europe.
There are those reservations. The measure is a stepping stone, as the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, said, on the way to achieving accession in the longer term for Serbia. On that note, will my noble friend tell us what he thinks of the timetable for accession? I understand that Serbia is hoping that it might be completed by 2014 or 2015, but there are still major obstacles that we need to overcome in that regard.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, I thank both noble Baronesses for their contributions. We all recognise that this is a process whereby Serbia has a number of targets to meet on the way to what we hope will be a full membership. Noble Lords will be aware that Croatia is a long way ahead and that we may well indeed be dealing with a Croatian accession treaty within the next 12 months or so. We very much want the other states of the western Balkans to follow Croatia down that line. As I said in opening, there is no question but that our security depends upon the effective integration of the western Balkans into the European Union.
I was asked a number of specific questions. The European Union is of course providing financial support through a number of programmes. The United Kingdom contributes primarily through those but there are also bilateral channels. When I was at the London School of Economics I taught one or two people from Serbia who were on Chevening scholarships, for example, so there is a range of other channels through which assistance is given.
On political dialogue and monitoring, the European Commission is responsible for monitoring although embassies in Belgrade also participate. They report back to the European Council and the Council of Ministers on how they see things happening on the ground. The last time I was in Belgrade, I was very impressed by the quality of the British embassy and the active way that it engages with Serbians inside and outside the Government there. I also visited a Serbian NGO that had direct links with British NGOs, which seems highly desirable. Wider contacts across civil society, including universities as well as NGOs, are part of how we reintegrate Serbia into European democratic society.
Progress on the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia is slow, as we all know. We do not know whether the two charged Serbs are still in Serbia or Republika Srpska or whether, as with the Croatian war criminal who was arrested in Minorca or Majorca, they are now way outside the country. We are contributing to training Serbian security forces and the best information that we have, from all those concerned, is that Serbia is continuing to co-operate to the best of its ability with those inquiries. There will of course be full information for Parliament when there is progress. I dare say that if any of them is arrested, the News of the World will have got hold of that even more quickly than us and published it.
The security and co-operation agreement will help to tackle homophobia. The whole process is concerned with raising the level of awareness of broader civil liberties issues. That is very much part of the ongoing dialogue between the Commission, the European Parliament, national Governments and the local authorities. Ratifying this agreement does not imply that we have in any way solved all these issues. Having answered all those questions, I reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, that the Foreign Secretary and the European Minister will continue to write to the respective scrutiny committees after each report from the ICTY and from Mr Brammertz.
I conclude by recommending the SAA and by hoping that Serbia now takes advantage of it and moves forward. I am sure that the SAA does not have a time limit of six years but will operate for six years in the first instance. Many of us would be very happy if Serbia has become an accepted candidate for the European Union before the end of that six-year period, but that depends on Serbia meeting the conditions to which this SAA introduces it.