European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Stabilisation and Association Agreement) (Republic of Serbia) Order 2011

Debate between Baroness Falkner of Margravine and Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

Monday 7th February 2011 Grand Committee

[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.