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Non-war Graves

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list by diplomatic mission the sums disbursed on non-war graves on behalf of the Government in 1999. [138802]

Mr. Hain: There was no expenditure on non-war graves on behalf of the Government in 1999.

Yugoslavia

Mrs. Mahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his answer of 8 November 2000, Official Report, column 279W, what assistance is to be given to help re-build the bombed Danube bridges in Yugoslavia. [138772]

Mr. Vaz: One permanent road bridge has been reconstructed by the Yugoslav authorities at Novi Sad together with a temporary road/rail crossing and a temporary pontoon bridge. The UK will be meeting the costs of laying a water pipeline across the new permanent road bridge. The current EC priority is to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the FRY, focusing on energy needs, medicine and food. Large scale civil engineering projects such as the reconstruction of further bridges at Novi Sad will be considered within the context of the medium term investment required for infrastructure in Serbia. The International Financial Institutions and private sector investors are likely to play important roles in this regard.

Khat

Mr. Bill O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many British

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subjects are being held in custody abroad for handling Khat, broken down by age and countries holding them; and if he will make a statement. [138826]

Mr. Hain: We are aware of eight British nationals detained overseas (all in the USA) for possession of Khat:




FCO travel advice warns that Khat is illegal in the USA and that visitors attempting to take it into the country risk imprisonment.

Iraq

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if the UN Sanctions Committee is holding back 2.25 billion dollars of humanitarian goods destined for Iraq; and if some of these holds pertained to critical items. [138767]

Mr. Hain: While the number and value of oil for food contracts placed on hold by the UN Iraq Sanctions Committee changes daily, in early November the value of contracts placed on hold was about $2.2 billion, of which $0.3 billion of contracts were on hold at UK request. At the same time, Iraqi bureaucracy was reported to be holding back the delivery of $1.1 billion worth of goods already approved by the Sanctions Committee. Where we place holds on contracts we do so mostly temporarily, because of concerns about the goods possible use in Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction programmes or because of a lack of (often basic) information about goods which might be of concern.

Since the oil for food programme began in December 1996, almost $16 billion worth of contracts have been approved, including $8.1 billion of food, $1.4 billion of health and $1.1 billion of oil spare parts. Through Security Council resolutions we have introduced a fast-track system for contracts in key humanitarian and infrastructure sectors. To date more than $2 billion worth of goods have been processed in this way.

Croatia (EU Arms Embargo)

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the lifting of the EU arms embargo against Croatia. [139836]

Mr. Hain: European Foreign Ministers agreed at the General Affairs Council on 20 November that the EU arms embargo against Croatia should be lifted with immediate effect.

This is in recognition of Croatia's continuing progress towards implementing her Dayton responsibilities. These include the removal of discriminatory legislation against Croatian Serbs and assistance in war affected areas, the adoption of legislation encouraging refugee return, the establishment of a transparent relationship with the HVO (Bosnian Croat army) in Bosnia and civilian oversight of the Defence Ministry. Croatia joined Partnership for Peace in May 2000 and will soon begin negotiations with the EU on a Stabilization and Association Agreement.

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On 20 November, the Council of the EU adopted a new Common Position amending 96/184/CFSP so that Croatia is no longer subject to the EU arms embargo against States of the Former Yugoslavia. Applications for licences to export defence equipment to Croatia will be considered on a case by case basis against the consolidated EU Code of Conduct and national arms export licensing criteria.

EU Intergovernmental Conference

Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his policy in respect of the provisions and amendments, by reference to each clause and article, set out in Chapter 7 of the Progress report on the IGC (Confer 4790/00) with particular reference to (a) removal of the veto or emergency brake mechanism, (b) the general principles, (c) the specific rules for cooperation under Title V of the EU Treaty and (d) the application of qualified majority in respect of (i) Article 40(2) and (ii) Titles V and VI of the Treaty on European Unity. [138563]

Mr. Vaz: Discussion continues on the proposed new enhanced co-operation arrangements. As the Prime Minister said in Warsaw, efficient decision-making in an enlarged EU will mean more enhanced co-operation. The Government are therefore open to amending the Treaty provisions provided that enhanced co-operation is open to all and does not undermine the single market.

Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will make a statement by reference to each article on his policy in respect of the provisions and proposed amendments set out in (a) Chapter 1, (b) Chapter 2, (c) Chapter 5, (d) Chapter 6, (e) Chapter 8 and (f) Chapter 9 of the Progress report (Confer 4790/00); [138565]

Mr. Vaz: The Government have made their policy clear on all the main IGC issues in the White Paper laid before the House on 15 February and on numerous occasions since then, most recently in their response to the Foreign Affairs Committee's Report on the IGC, which was published as a Command Paper on 27 October. I refer the hon. Member to these.

Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will make a statement on proposals in the Progress report on the IGC on Institutional Reform relating to (a) prevention of fraud in the field of taxation, (b) excise duties, (c) financial assistance for natural disasters, (d) the co-ordination of social protection among member states, (e) intellectual property, (f) social exclusion and (g) EU cultural policies; [138652]

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Mr. Vaz: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), on 30 October 2000, Official Report, column 238W.

EU Publicity Campaign

Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the cost to date of the public campaign to explain the benefits of the European Union. [138650]

Mr. Vaz: Since the launch of the "Your Britain, Your Europe" information initiative in November last year, we have spent almost £171,000. This covers the cost of visits to 22 towns and cities across UK, an open day at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May to mark Europe Day, and other events and publications.

Strategic Export Controls

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to respond to the Quadripartite Committee's report on "Strategic Exports Controls: Further Report and Parliamentary Prior Scrutiny", HC 467 of session 1999-2000, published on 25 July. [139524]

Mr. Hain: We are in the final stages of inter-departmental consultations on the Government's Response to the Quadripartite Committee's report on "Strategic Export Controls: Further Report and Parliamentary Prior Scrutiny", and expect to publish it soon.

Child Abduction

Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the countries which have acceded to The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction but whose accession has not yet been declared as accepted by the Government under Article 38; what are the dates of the accession to the Convention of each of these countries; and for which of these countries it is his intention to make a declaration of acceptance in due course. [139012]

Mr. Hain: Currently, 31 countries have ratified The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Another 33 countries have acceded to the Convention. The UK has not recognised the accessions of countries. These are:










The UK's recognition of Fiji's accession will be placed on the next Statutory Instruments as we have completed a review and are satisfied that they can meet their obligations under the Convention.

We take our own obligations under the Hague Convention very seriously and will only recognise the accession of states whom we are confident can implement

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the Convention effectively and efficiently. We are not planning to recognise the accession of any new states (apart from Fiji) to the Convention until the 4th Special Commission to review the Convention, which will take place in The Hague from 22-28 March 2001.

One of the issues which is to be discussed at the Commission is membership criteria for future member states. This will address the suitability of candidates and whether they have the appropriate structures in place to meet all of their obligations under the Convention. We plan to apply the criteria consistently to future members, and to those states whose accession we have not yet recognised.

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