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Mr. Anthony Coombs (Wyre Forest): Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Davis: I am very short on time and I am afraid that I cannot allow any more interventions.
Why is the situation in Famagusta and Varosha important to the House and to Britain? Human compassion for those of both communities who have suffered is of course one reason, but the wider Cyprus problem and the search for a settlement is an issue at the centre of British foreign policy.
Cyprus has long been important to British interests. I could spend a good deal of time talking about the history of our relationship, but it has been already been recounted by other hon. Members. We do not need to look very far for evidence of the closeness of our relationship. Cyprus draws 1 million British tourists to its shores every year.
People of Cypriot origin are part of the landscape in Britain--especially in London--and they have made a welcome contribution to British society.
We also have an important and substantial trading relationship with Cyprus. Some 10 per cent. of all exports to Cyprus--worth £230 million--are British and our imports from Cyprus amount to £136 million. It is also necessary to recall that our two sovereign base areas in Cyprus remain of fundamental strategic importance to the United Kingdom and the west. The Gulf war was a strong and a recent reminder of that fact.
A distinguished British observer of the Cyprus scene during the past three decades has commented:
We are bound by history and by a moral duty to do all that we can to help to find a solution. The international community also plays it part, but neither we nor it hold the solution in our hands. Only the main protagonists, the two Cypriot communities, can decide what arrangements they can live with, but we can and must assist with advice, encouragement, support and even a degree of arm-twisting--hon. Members know that I am not very familiar with that--if we judge that it will help.
My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) took the House through recent developments when we last debated Cyprus. He said then that the status quo was not acceptable, and he was right. I shall now recap events and bring the House up to date on the Cyprus situation.
The United Nations Security Council resolution 939, passed on 29 July 1994, called for a fundamental and far-reaching reflection on ways of approaching the Cyprus problem in a manner that would yield results. It also called for the earliest possible implementation of the confidence-building measures that are so important for the future of Varosha.
In October 1994, the UN Secretary-General invited the two community leaders to talks with his representative in Cyprus. That offered a welcome opportunity for the two leaders to meet face to face and to discuss the issues between them. We were hopeful that a new willingness to compromise was emerging. President Clerides adopted a useful and a positive approach to ways of achieving a settlement, and Mr. Denktash reaffirmed his commitment to a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. We were disappointed that nothing concrete emerged from the meeting, but we remained hopeful that those contacts might form the basis of further contacts.
The United Nations continued its contacts with the two leaders, encouraging them towards a common perception of the kind of trade-offs needed to make real progress. The build-up to elections in northern Cyprus in April inevitably produced a pause in international efforts. As the House knows, Mr. Denktash was re-elected. We shall not let him forget that, during his election campaign, he said that he saw himself as the candidate best fitted to negotiate a settlement for the Turkish Cypriot community.
The House will be aware of the exploratory discussions between representatives from both communities in Cyprus which took place in London in May. The objective of the talks was to generate momentum behind the UN efforts to find a settlement. We felt that that might be achieved through confidential contacts away from the intense gaze of publicity in Cyprus. Both groups met American and British representatives to talk over the issues and to share views on the paths and obstacles to progress. They also had direct discussions with each other.
If I say that there was a helpful exchange of views, hon. Members will know that that is diplomatic language to describe meetings which did not yield as much as we had hoped, but it does not mean that that approach to the issue was worthless. We and the Americans still believe that confidential contacts can provide a way forward. However, I stress the word "confidential"--both communities must resist the urge to play to the gallery.
The British high commissioner and the US ambassador in Nicosia have unstintingly maintained contact with both leaders and urged them to focus on the main ingredients of a settlement. The US presidential envoy, Richard Beattie, will visit Cyprus next week to follow up the London talks. It is important to remember that there are a number of strands to the international efforts to find a settlement. We welcome the appointment of Dick Beattie and we have been fully and closely involved in his activities and initiatives--including the May talks in London--and in preparing the ground for his forthcoming visit to Cyprus. The London talks were a product of our collaboration with the Americans. They were a brave attempt, but they did not constitute a new, self-standing initiative. As I have said, they support the mission of the United Nations Secretary-General.
That is also true of progress on the route now mapped out for Cyprus's accession to the European Union. The House might find it helpful to have an account of where we are on that route. The Republic of Cyprus applied to join the European Union in July 1990. The European Commission submitted an opinion on Cyprus's application in June 1993. The opinion confirmed Cyprus's European identity and character and its vocation to belong to the Community. It also clearly envisaged that the accession process would provide an opportunity to resolve the central elements of the intercommunal dispute--I was pleased to hear the Opposition spokesperson confirm that view today. The opinion states:
A further step was taken at the Foreign Affairs Council on 6 March. The council's conclusions outlined the circumstances under which accession negotiations will start, six months after the end of the 1996 intergovernmental conference. The Council called for progress in the intercommunal dispute and noted that some useful points had been identified recently.
The European Union's Association Council with Cyprus has since set out a substantial pre-accession strategy, with a structured dialogue. The first ministerial meeting between the 15 European Union countries and Cyprus took place on 21 November. The dialogue on political issues and the pre-accession strategy will serve to bring Cyprus closer to the European Union before formal accession negotiations begin.
Significant progress has been made on the road to Cyprus's accession to the European Union, and we have been at the forefront of that progress. Indeed, in March 1995, President Clerides singled out Britain among EU member states for our helpful contribution regarding Cyprus. We are grateful for his compliment. We have indeed been working hard on Cyprus's behalf.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Geoffrey Lofthouse):
Order. Time is up.
Mr. Anthony Coombs (Wyre Forest):
I want to draw attention to a matter of great controversy and sensitivity in my constituency--proposals to change fire cover in the Wyre Forest and north Worcestershire area.
I start by paying tribute to the firemen of the Worcestershire and north Worcestershire area, who do a magnificent job. Indeed, two members of the Hereford and Worcester brigade lost their lives in 1993, fighting a fire in Hereford.
The proposals by the chief fire officer, as part of what he called a "zero-based fire cover review", in September 1995 are unacceptable to people in my constituency, and reduce fire cover to an unacceptable level. It is proposed to close the retained station at Bewdley, and to halve the full-time complement at Kidderminster, reduce the number of its appliances and remove its hydraulic platform.
That has caused a huge amount of controversy. We have received a petition of 25,000 signatures against the proposals. The Wyre Forest district council has a special working party to act against them. The proposals have been the subject of innumerable meetings and letters to me and to Hereford and Worcester county council. I hope that, even at this late stage, the people responsible in the fire authority will review their proposals, which are unacceptable.
I understand that the county council has set up a working party, which is due to report by the end of January 1996. Although, under the Fire Services Act 1947, the proposals must ultimately go to the Home Office for approval, I hope that those proposals will be withdrawn before that becomes necessary.
"Nobody won and everybody lost by reason of this futile conflict".
I agree. The division of Cyprus since 1974 has been damaging and wasteful, as Varosha itself illustrates. It cannot go on. We have always said that the division of the island is unacceptable. Our efforts and those of the international community continue to aim for a solution based on reconciliation between the two communities.
"the fundamental freedoms laid down by the treaty . . . could not today be exercised over the entirety of the island's territory.
These freedoms and rights would have to be guaranteed as part of a comprehensive settlement restoring constitutional arrangements covering the whole of the Republic of Cyprus".
In Corfu in June 1994, the Heads of Government of the European Union agreed that Cyprus would be involved in the next stage of enlargement. That view was reaffirmed at the Essen European Council in December 1994. The Commission reviewed the question of Cyprus's accession to the European Union in February, and that review confirmed Cyprus's suitability for accession.
Fire Services (North Worcestershire)
11 am
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