Baroness Falkner of Margravine
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European Council
Baroness Falkner of Margravine Excerpts(9 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Falkner of Margravine (LD)
My Lords, I thank the Leader of the House for repeating that Statement, which sounded rather like the Conservative election manifesto—but then so did Labour’s response. I am sure the House will be pleased to hear that I will stick to the conclusions of the European Council rather than doing that.
The conclusions say at paragraph 13 that the high representative, in co-operation with member states, is going to prepare an action plan by June to counter Russia’s disinformation campaign. In light of the questions we had a little earlier today in the House, can the Leader of the House confirm that the BBC will assist the high representative in forming this communication team, as it clearly has great expertise in that regard? The other point is on paragraph 16 and the Commission’s initiative to submit a European agenda for migration. Will this be restricted perhaps to the Schengen area, or will it be a comprehensive EU-wide agenda, because the material facts and action possible will be very different in both regards?
Finally, the Leader of the House challenged us at the end of the Statement on the European referendum pledge—
Noble Lords
Baroness Falkner of Margravine
I am concluding. Could I just ask whether the Leader of the House has seen the report coming out today by Open Europe on the cost of exit?
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
On my noble friend’s first point about communication and Russia, I would not want to commit as to what role the BBC World Service might play. I point my noble friend to the fact that the good governance fund to which I referred in the Statement is designed to help those eastern nations which neighbour Russia and in the Balkans to improve their strategic communications. As to her point about the Open Europe report today, the key thing that I took away from it was that the best way forward is for a reformed European Union, and that is what David Cameron is committed to securing.