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22 Mar 2005 : Column 794W—continued
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
British Virgin Islands
Mr. Dismore:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what mechanisms are in place to ensure that Ministers and officials from the British Virgin Islands are advised of legislative
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initiatives from the European Commission or Parliament which may impact on the British Virgin Islands. [223346]
Mr. MacShane: When legislative initiatives that might impact on the British Virgin Islands and other Overseas Territories come to the attention of UK officials, information on them is fed to the Overseas Territories Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This information is then passed on to the territories.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress his Department has made on the negotiated compensation package between the UK Government and the British Virgin Islands Government. [223347]
Mr. MacShane: The compensation package agreed with the British Virgin Islands (BVI) Government as part of the discussions on the implementation of the EU Savings Directive is reviewed regularly between Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and representatives of the BVI Government. Progress has been made on most of the agreed measures with conclusions already reached on some of them.
EU Regulations
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many EU regulations, directives and decisions have been enacted in each year since UK accession; and how many have been (a) deleted and (b) are no longer in force. [221232]
Mr. MacShane: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold this information. The House of Commons Library estimates that around 9 per cent. of UK legislation emanates from the EU. The details in the tables are taken from the annual Commission Report on the activities of the EU", which has in turn been collated by the House of Commons. The figures for EU regulations, directives and decisions enacted are only available for the years 1980–2003 inclusive. The figures for legislation repealed or expired are only available for the years 1997–2003 inclusive.
(43) These figures includes regulations, decisions, directives, recommendations and opinions (i.e. legislative and non-legislative instruments), as Commission sources prior to 1992 do not give a breakdown for Commission instruments.
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EU-ASEAN Meetings
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether the Government will be represented at the EU-ASEAN meetings during Burma's chairing of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in 2006–07; [222874]
(2) what his policy is on the use of the conditions agreed at Tullamore in April 2004 by the EU as the criteria for whether the EU should attend EU-ASEAN meetings chaired by Burma in 2006; [222875]
(3) what position the Government will take within the EU on the issue of Burma's military rulers chairing EU-ASEAN meetings in 2006–07. [222876]
Mr. Alexander
[holding answer 21 March 2005]: We are concerned about Burma's forthcoming chairmanship of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006. We know too that some other ASEAN members are concerned.
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The UK attends EU-ASEAN meetings as a member of the EU. Decisions on attendance are taken by consensus with the EU. It is too early for the EU to take a decision on the approach it will take in July 2006. This will depend on developments in Burma before then. We have made clear that we wish to see real progress towards genuine democratisation in Burma including the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
We are also using our regular bilateral and multilateral contacts with all ASEAN members, who are key to progress on this issue, to encourage them to press the military regime in Burma to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic groups as soon as possible. There is a clear understanding that the prospect of Burmese chairmanship of ASEAN makes the need for change all the more pressing.
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