APPENDIX G
FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Memorandum to the Liaison Committee
1. The Liaison Committee has asked for an annual
report from select committees. Our predecessor committee reported
to the House a year ago on its work in the last Parliament.[109]
The substantial continuity of membership that we have with our
predecessor Committee—with six of our eleven Members having
served in the last Parliament—has been of great value to
us, and has allowed us, since our first meeting on 19 July, to
waste no time in continuing the rigorous and sustained scrutiny
of Government maintained by our predecessor committee.
2. This memorandum focuses on the work of the
committee so far in the present Parliament, but also covers the
work of our predecessor committee from the time of its last annual
report until the dissolution of the last Parliament.
3. We attach as an annex to this memorandum a
list of the informal meetings that we and our predecessor committee
held during 2001. We agree with our predecessor committee that
"contact between members of the Committee and ministers,
parliamentarians and others from around the world helps to keep
the Committee informed of international concerns and makes a contribution
towards the promotion of good international relations, which is
an integral part of the Committee's work".[110]
Work of our predecessor Committee
4. The reports published by our predecessor committee
after January 2001 all related to inquiries which were already
under way at that time and which were mentioned in its last annual
report. It reported on Gibraltar,[111]
European Union enlargement,[112]
the annual report of the Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO),[113]
and the FCO's Annual Report on Human Rights.[114]
It also reported together with three other committees, as the
Quadripartite Committee, on strategic export controls[115]
and the draft Export Control and Non-Proliferation Bill.[116]
These are all matters of continuing interest to us.
5. Our predecessor committee produced a substantial
report on Yugoslavia,[117]
on which we were glad to be able to secure a debate in Westminster
Hall on 6 December.[118]
Work of the Committee in the new Parliament
6. The events of 11 September have naturally
had a major impact on the Committee's programme, and were a central
focus of our inquiry into British-US relations. Our predecessor
committee was unable to take its inquiry into Britain's foreign
policy towards Iran very far because of the parliamentary timetable.[119]
Although we have not so far been able to undertake an inquiry
into that country, we have by no means lost sight of its importance.
In our recent Report into British-US relations,[120]
we noted that "Iran's dual status as a member of the coalition
with an active interest in a stable Afghanistan on its border,
and as a state of concern with a recent history of extreme hostility
towards the West, lends it a particular importance in contemporary
international relations"[121]
and concluded that "the Government's and European Union's
policies of constructive engagement with Iran deserve full support".[122]
We will doubtless have reason to consider further the progress
of that engagement in the context of our ongoing inquiry into
Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism.
7. We have decided that, where we wish to conduct
an inquiry, but know in advance that developments will be ongoing,
a one-off inquiry completed by a single report is not always the
best basis on which to proceed. We have therefore announced 'rolling'
inquiries into Developments in the European Union, the 2004 Inter-Governmental
Conference and into Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against
Terrorism. Some of our other inquiries are also, in effect, ongoing:
our predecessor committee maintained an ongoing critical dialogue
with the Government on Gibraltar and Zimbabwe, and we too have
not let these matters lie, with recent oral evidence sessions
on each.[123]
8. We will shortly be inquiring into the Government's
annual report on human rights, a matter on which the Foreign Affairs
Committee has reported annually since 1998. We are also conducting
an inquiry into the United Kingdom's relations with Turkey, which
will link into our other work on the European Union and on foreign
policy aspects of the war against terrorism.
9. The Quadripartite Committee held its first
meeting on 18 December. We intend to participate fully in its
work. Bringing select committees together on subjects of cross-departmental
interest has been shown to be a powerful way of voicing Parliament's
opinions and concerns.
Select Committees: protecting their independence
10. In theory, the membership of select committees
is decided freely by Parliament; in practice it is often imposed
on the House by the party Whips. The independence of select committees
from such Government interference is vital. This Parliament began
with a reaffirmation of that independence, when on 16 July the
House refused to allow the Government to remove the chairmen of
our committee and of the Transport, Local Government and the Regions
Committee.[124] We
support fully the work of the Liaison Committee to bolster the
power and independence of select committees.
INFORMAL MEETINGS HELD BY THE FOREIGN
AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
IN THE YEAR 2001
Session 2000-2001
Thursday 7 December 2000
International Relations Committee of the Russian
State Duma
Thursday 7th December 2000
Delegation headed by Mr Chun Guk Kim, Director of
the European Department of the Foreign Ministry of North Korea
Tuesday 12th December 2000
Mr Svetorzar Marovi_, Speaker of the Montenegro Parliament
Wednesday 13 December 2000
Mr Charles Crawford, HM Ambassador to the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia
Tuesday 27 February 2001
Macedonian Foreign Affairs Committee
Wednesday 28th February 2001
Mr Goran Svilanovi_, Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Wednesday 28th February 2001
Elsie Leung, Secretary for Justice, Hong Kong
Thursday 8th March 2001
Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austrian Foreign Minister
Session 2001 - 2002
Tuesday 3 July 2001
Mr Jin Lie, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the Chongqing People's Congress
Wednesday 4 July 2001
Mr Jan Kavan, Foreign Minister, Czech Republic
Wednesday 24 October 2001
Mr Anatoly Zlenko, Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Ukraine
Wednesday 24 October 2001
Swiss Foreign Affairs Committee
Tuesday 13 November 2001
HH Prince Abdullah Bin Faisal Bin Turki, Head of
Saudi Arabian Investment Authority
Monday 19th November
Mr Donald Tsang, Chief Secretary for Administration,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Tuesday 27 November 2001
Hon Paul Berenger, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Finance, Mauritius
Thursday 29 November 2001
HE Dr Vojislav Koštunica, President of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia
Monday 3 December 2001
Delegation from the Russian State Duma
Tuesday 4 December 2001
Executive and Legislative Councillors from St Helena
Wednesday 5 December 20001
Hon Mwai Kibaki, Leader of the Opposition, Kenya
Wednesday 12 December 2001
Mr Tassos Papadopolous, President of the Foreign
and European Affairs Committee, Cyprus House of Representatives
Monday 17 December 2001
Mr Tonino Picula, Croatian Foreign Minister, and
Mr Neven Mimica, Croatian Minister for European Integration
109 First Special Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee,
Session 2000-01, HC 78. Back
110
Op cit, para 16. Back
111
Sixth Report, Session 2000-01, HC 319. Back
112
Fifth Report, Session 2000-01, HC 318. Back
113
Ninth Report, Session 2000-01, HC 428. Back
114
First Report, Session 2000-01, HC 79, and Eighth Report, Session
2000-01, HC 469. Back
115
Third Report, Session 2000-01, HC 212. Back
116
Seventh Report, Session 2000-01, HC 445. Back
117
Fourth Report, Session 2000-01, HC 246. Back
118
HC Deb, 6 December 2001, Col. 139-217WH. Back
119
It produced an interim report as its Second Report, Session 2000-01,
HC 80. Back
120
Second Report, Session 2001-02, HC 327. Back
121
Op cit, para 167. Back
122
Op cit, para 170. Back
123
See First Report from the Committee, Session 2001-02, HC 413,
and Uncorrected Evidence presented by Baroness Amos, Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 12
December 2001, HC 456-i (available on the Internet at www.parliament.uk).
Back
124
HC Deb, Monday 16 July 2001, Col. 35-85. Back
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