Written Statements

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Written Statements

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Foreign Affairs Council: 11 December 2017

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Europe and the Americas (Sir Alan Duncan)]

I attended the Foreign Affairs Council on 11 December, which was followed by a FAC (Development). The Council was chaired by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HRVP), Federica Mogherini. The meeting was held in Brussels.

Ministers met the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the margins of the Council. The meeting was an opportunity for the European Union to reiterate its united and clear messages on the status of Jerusalem as future capital of two states, the importance of preserving a two-state solution and, on regional issues, the need to continue implementing the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal).

Foreign Affairs Council

EU Foreign Ministers discussed the middle east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), G5 Sahel force and jointly, with Development Ministers, EU-Africa relations. Development Ministers discussed aid for trade.

The HRVP, in her introductory comments, also spoke about permanent structured co-operation (PESCO), Libya, her visit to Burma and Bangladesh and the Eastern Partnership Summit. I spoke about the historic opportunity in Zimbabwe and the need for the right policy mix to respond to developments there.

Middle east

The Council held discussions on the latest developments in the wider middle east. I set out the UK position on Jerusalem, settlements, final status and the two-state solution. Member states agreed to continue to respect the international consensus on Jerusalem including on the location of their diplomatic representations until the final status of Jerusalem is resolved. Ministers considered how the EU could limit escalation and preserve stability in the region, as well as consolidate progress in countries such as Lebanon.

Ministers expressed their concern at the serious deterioration of the situation in Yemen, which was witnessing the onset of a grave humanitarian catastrophe. They agreed to continue working to re-invigorate UN-led efforts towards a political solution to the conflict in Yemen in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Ministers recalled the continued EU support for the efforts of UN Special Envoy de Mistura in Syria.

Ministers underlined the importance of continuing and strengthening the EU’s engagement on Iraq. The HRVP and the Commission are expected to present a proposal for a new strategy in January 2018.

Sahel

Ministers representing the Sahel countries set out their security and humanitarian needs. EU Ministers agreed that more needed to be done given the shared interests in the region.

EU-Africa relations

In a joint session with Foreign and Development Ministers, Ministers underlined the importance of the EU-Africa summit and the need to continue working with African partners in an inclusive way.

Development—aid for trade

The Council discussed the updated strategy on aid for trade which aims to improve the integration of developing countries into the international trading system and to enable trade and investment to contribute to reducing poverty.

Ministers agreed a number of measures without discussion:

The Council adopted a decision establishing permanent structured co-operation (PESCO);

The Council adopted conclusions on DRC;

The Council adopted conclusions on Thailand;

The Council extended sanctions against the DRC

The Council agreed rules of procedure for the joint committee established by the co-operation agreement on partnership and development between the European Union and Afghanistan;

The Council adopted a decision to support the global reporting mechanism on illicit small arms and light weapons and other illicit conventional weapons and ammunition to reduce the risk of their illicit trade (“iTrace III”);

The Council took note of the 19th annual report on EU exports of military technology and equipment;

The Council decided to provide support to the African, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions to participate in the high-level fissile material—such as highly enriched uranium or plutonium—cut-off treaty expert preparatory group consultative process;

The Council approved a draft EU-China statement on climate change and clean energy;

The Council adopted conclusions on the European Court of Auditors’ special report on the Bekou EU trust fund;

The Council adopted conclusions on the 2016 report on the gender action plan II.

[HCWS403]

National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Boris Johnson)]

Today marks the publication of the UK’s fourth National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2022) by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, with support from the stabilisation unit.

The National Action Plan (NAP) is the UK Government’s five-year strategy that captures how we will meet our women, peace and security (WPS) commitments under UN Security Council Resolution 1325, demonstrating how we will ensure better protection and empowerment of women in conflict situations overseas through our diplomatic, development and defence engagements alongside our bilateral and multilateral partners.

The UK is a global leader on women, peace and security, taking the lead on drafting resolutions on this issue in the UN Security Council. In 2017 the FCO’s first ever special envoy for gender equality was appointed as part of wider UK ambition to eliminate all forms of gender inequality. The UK has continued work to increase women’s participation in conflict resolution in some of the most fragile countries in the world, including in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria. Along with Bangladesh and Canada, the UK launched the Women, Peace and Security Chief of Defence Network at the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Conference in Vancouver in November 2017. The promotion of women in mediation in conflict resolution and countering violent extremism will continue at the Commonwealth Summit and beyond.

The UK continues to tackle gender-based violence, particularly violence against women and girls as the most prevalent form of gender-based violence. We continue to champion the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative to end sexual exploitation and abuse, working closely with our international partners.

This NAP has been developed based on lessons learned from the previous three UK NAPs, extensive consultation and new research and evidence on WPS. Key changes are:

The NAP covers a longer, five-year period, enabling greater opportunity for the UK and implementing partners to demonstrate impact against our long-term objectives and outcomes.

The NAP provides a vision of what the UK wants to achieve on WPS, not a fixed country-level implementation plan. This will enable us to respond flexibly to local realities and changes in the contexts, and to adapt programmes and activities to global and local developments.

We have set out seven strategic outcomes, linked to the four pillars of UNSCR 1325, where the UK can demonstrate a comparative advantage and expect to see real progress over this period.

We have retained inclusion of focus countries, recognising that this helps the UK to raise issues and work in partnership with governments, and to improve domestic and international visibility. We have increased the number from six to nine. They are: Afghanistan, Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

The NAP 2018-22 sets out more clearly how it fits with wider HMG policies and strategies to ensure complementarity with other Government efforts.

We are grateful to the all-party parliamentary group on women, peace and security for their active engagement on this important issue and would, in particular, like to thank Baroness Hodgson for her dedicated work in this area. We would also like to thank the civil society network, Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), and the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security for the contribution they have made to the process of revising the NAP.

We will continue to consult with Parliament and civil society, including through the annual report on progress on the implementation of the NAP. The FCO will convene a new WPS steering group, chaired by Lord Ahmad, to bring together NGOs and academics with senior officials to provide accountability and leadership on this agenda. We will commission an external evaluation for a mid and end of term assessment of how the strategic outcomes have been included through HMG’s planning and delivery processes.

A copy of the NAP has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, and is available on gov.uk.

It can be viewed online at:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-01-16/HCWS404/.

[HCWS404]

ETIAS Watchlist

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service (Mr Nick Hurd)]

The Government have decided not to opt-in to the proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EU) 2016/794 for the purpose of establishing a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) watchlist.

As the UK does not participate in ETIAS itself, we do not expect to have direct access to the watchlist through this process. The Government also note that there are a number of issues still to be resolved with regard to how the watchlist will be hosted by Europol and how it will function. As such, it is not clear whether opting in could place any additional obligations on the UK. For these reasons, the Government have decided not to opt in to the amending regulation at this time.

Not opting in will not affect the operability of the Europol regulation for the UK.

[HCWS405]