European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Association Agreement) (Georgia) Order 2015

Debate between Lord Bowness and Earl of Dundee

Thursday 26th February 2015 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Dundee (Con)]

My Lords, all of us will be grateful to my noble friend for her presentation of these orders. As outlined, the association agreements are intended to deepen political and economic relations between these states and other parties.

Neither Georgia, Moldova nor Ukraine is a member of the European Union; however, all three are members of the Council of Europe and its 47 states’ affiliation. By the Council of Europe, the three states are already held to account for meeting obligations. This occurs through its Parliament, through monitoring mechanisms—for example, CPT, ECRI and FCNM—and at the Court in Strasbourg.

Clearly, we want to avoid double handling or reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. This would occur if a branch of the European Union or some other improvised European process should try to set up its own rule of law mechanism for monitoring and deployment—not least if such should be attempted in connection with the association agreements that we are considering.

Can my noble friend assure us that such double handling is not envisaged and will not occur; and that, instead, today’s association agreements can therefore progress constructively and creatively, and be facilitated by Council of Europe structures that are already in place?

[Lord Bowness (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her clear explanation of the orders, and I am sure that we are all grateful to her for bringing us up to date on the situation in Ukraine. I should say at the outset that I support the orders and the fact that the European Union has entered into these association agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

These countries have two things in common: first, they are victims of territorial disputes and, secondly, all have sought a European and westward-looking future. Ukraine is, of course, in the forefront of the news today, and the dispute over Crimea and part of eastern Ukraine sadly seems likely to be added to the list of frozen conflicts, joining those in South Ossetia, Abkhazia in Georgia, and Transnistria in Moldova.

I have just come back from the meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where discussion about the situation in Ukraine dominated proceedings. However, deep concerns were also expressed about Russia’s intentions in respect of Moldova and Georgia—and the Baltic states, which are outside the area we are discussing. We must do everything we can to anticipate Russian intentions towards these states and not allow the dissident parts to provide the excuse for Russia to undermine the rest of the country seeking a different, European and democratic future. We have already seen Armenia turn its face against an association agreement.

This afternoon is not the place to go into these situations in detail but, while I entirely agree that Russia should not have a veto over the future of any sovereign state, it is important that the position of the European Union and our Government is clear—namely, that although the agreements are a welcome step to inclusion of these countries in Europe, there can be no question of accession to the European Union while these territorial disputes exist. Unless we make that clear, we stand the risk of dashing the hopes of many citizens in those countries, and that can lead only to disillusionment with the European Union and the West in general.

Nevertheless, we should adopt the agreements with enthusiasm and offer as much assistance and economic help as possible to buttress the sometimes fragile democracies that exist in these countries. The agreements are with each of the three countries and the Governments of those countries do not recognise the independence of or the occupation of part of their respective states. It may be an academic point, but the agreements make no reference to these facts. My noble friend referred to businesses in Transnistria; are we quite satisfied that the benefits of these agreements cannot be claimed by businesses— which are no doubt very inventive as to where goods are produced and subsequently exported from—which are in fact based in these disputed territories? If that is considered to be too fanciful, are we in any circumstances under the agreements able to differentiate between the three sovereign states and their Governments and the areas over which they have no control and are in dispute?