Developments in the European Union
19. In 2001, we launched our over-arching inquiry
Developments in the European Union. In 2008-09 we continued
our longstanding practice of hearing evidence from the Foreign
Secretary prior to the bi-annual meetings of the full European
Council. We took oral evidence from Rt Hon David Miliband MP,
Foreign Secretary, and Mr Matthew Rycroft, Director EU, Foreign
and Commonwealth Office (on 10 December 2008 and 17 June 2009).
We also took oral evidence from Baroness (Catherine) Ashton, European
Trade Commissioner, on 11 March 2009. We published the transcripts
of these sessions, which we regard as a useful exercise both in
accountability and in the scrutiny of the Government's policy
towards Europe.[13]
20. In July 2008, we visited Cyprus in order to assess
the political developments which had taken place there since our
previous visit in January 2007, in particular the imminent opening
of direct talks between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
communities for the first time since the failure of the Annan
Plan in 2004. Following our 2007 visit to Cyprus (and Turkey)
we reported to the House an anonymised summary of discussions
during the visit. In the Report we commented that:
It is not our standard practice to produce a Report
on the Committee's visits. The discussions we hold with senior
figures in governments, parliaments, business and civil society
are confidential, and we respect that confidentiality. On this
occasion, however, we felt that it was important to acquaint the
House with what we heard during the visit to Turkey and Cyprus,
and to bring to wider attention a summary of the issues we discussed
and the opinions we encountered.[14]
21. On the same basis we considered that it would
be useful to publish a short digest of the views we canvassed
during our 2008 visit. This was meant as an update of our previous
Report, and a 'snapshot' of opinion on the island on the brink
of what may be momentous changes.[15]
We published our Report on the Committee's Visit to Cyprus in
February 2009.
22. We have continued our practice of visiting the
capital of the country which holds the EU Presidency in each six-month
period, while taking the opportunity of combining this with visits
to other EU states, particularly those which have recently acceded,
or to countries which are applicants for accession. In January
2009, we visited Prague and Warsaw during the Czech Presidency
of the EU, and held a series of meetings on NATO, the Lisbon Treaty
and European Ballistic Missile Defence. In October 2009, a group
of us visited Sweden and Estonia, while another group revisited
the western Balkans: Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In
Sweden we considered the priorities of the Swedish Presidency,
including EU enlargement and the Baltic Sea Strategy, and in Estonia
we visited the NATO counter-cyber warfare centre. Our visit to
the western Balkans enabled the visiting group to discuss with
a range of interlocutors the impact of Kosovo's unilateral declaration
of independence in February 2008, Serbia's potential accession
to the EU and the prospects for constitutional reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
23. The Chairman also attended the Conference of
the G8 Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen in May 2009; the Forum
on the politics of economic crises in Bled, Slovenia, in August
2009; the EU Conference of Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen
in Visby, Sweden, in September 2009; and a meeting in Stockholm
on the shaping of a parliamentary dimension to the EU's "Eastern
Partnership" in October 2009.
Committees on Arms Export Controls
24. As in previous years, the Committee has played
a full part, together with our colleagues from the Business, Innovation
and Skills,[16] Defence
and International Development Committees, in the work of the 'Committees
on Arms Export Controls' (CAEC), formerly known as the 'Quadripartite
Committee'. CAEC's main job is to review government policy
on licensing arms exports and licensing decisions. Each year
the Government produces an annual report on strategic export controls
which CAEC scrutinises.
25. During 2008-09 CAEC took oral evidence from Ian
Pearson MP, then Economic and Business Minister, BERR; Rt Hon
Bill Rammell MP, the then Minister of State at the FCO; Amnesty
UK; Oxfam GB; Saferworld and the Export Group for Aerospace Defence.
In May 2009 it visited the Counter Proliferation Department of
the FCO. CAEC also made a return visit to Kiev following a visit
to Westminster in 2007 of a delegation of Ukrainian MPs from the
Committee for National Security and Defence of the Verkhovna Rada
(Supreme Council) and local non-governmental organisation partners.
26. CAEC published its report, Scrutiny of Arms Export
Controls (2009): UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2007,
Quarterly Reports for 2008, licensing policy and review of export
control legislation, in August 2009.[17]
The Report follows the pattern of those of earlier years: a review
of the policy, enforcement and the annual and quarterly reports
on strategic export controls published since CAEC's previous Report,
combined with a detailed examination of aspects of export control
which follow up the issues raised in previous Reports.[18]
27. CAEC's last Report included the conclusion that
the two weeks it was given to comment on the draft Trade in Goods
(Categories of Controlled Goods) Order was "wholly inadequate".[19]
It recommended that, in future, the Government give interested
parties at least two months to comment on drafts of the third
tranche of secondary legislation. At the time of CAEC's last Report,
the third tranche of legislation had not yet been finalised.[20]
The Committees expressed their concern at the inadequate time
given to us to properly scrutinise the legislation. They were
extremely disappointed that the Government did not accept our
previous recommendation, but instead merely committed to giving
them one month only to consider the third Order. CAEC repeated
its recommendation that, in future, the Government should ensure
that interested parties have at least two months to comment on
drafts of secondary legislation implementing the Government's
conclusions on the outcome of its Review of Export Controls.
28. During the visit by CAEC to Kiev in May 2009,
the Ukrainian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs supplied it
with a document which contained a list of UK-registered brokers
to whom the Ukrainian State Service for Export Control had licensed
the export of collectors' items (light arms) from the Soviet stockpile
of weapons. CAEC was alarmed to see that the end users on the
list included countries for which there are FCO policy restrictions
on the export of strategic goods.[21]
It was extremely concerned that the UK Embassy in Kiev, the Export
Control Organisation and HM Revenue and Customs were all unaware
of the existence of this list. CAEC subsequently recommended in
its Report that the FCO should ensure that its embassies and diplomatic
posts engage more effectively with the national export control
organisations to obtain information on UK arms brokers licensed
by overseas states. It further recommended that the Government
should instigate an investigation into the list provided and confirm
as soon as possible that the necessary licences had been obtained
and no UK legislation had been breached.[22]
CAEC will return to this issue in its next Report.
29. In its response to CAEC's Report, the Government
accepted that it could give more consideration to the question
of how to obtain the co-operation of foreign governments in ensuring
that HMG can police the system effectively. The relevant departments
are in discussion about how this can be achieved.[23]
The Government also confirmed that the names on the list are currently
being reviewed to establish whether the activity listed may have
been licensable under UK legislation.[24]
2 Foreign Affairs Committee, Fourth Report of Session
2008-09, Global Security: Non-Proliferation, HC 222 Back
3
Foreign Affairs Committee, Global Security: Non-Proliferation,
paras 114, 115, 121, 133 and 136 Back
4
Ibid., para 241 Back
5
Ibid., para 182 Back
6
Fourth Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Session 2008-09,
Global Security: Non-Proliferation: Response of the Secretary
of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Cm 7692. August
2009, para 6 Back
7
Foreign Affairs Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2006-07, Global
Security: The Middle East, HC 363 Back
8
Foreign Affairs Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2008-09, Global
Security: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
HC 261 Back
9
These are: a commitment to non-violence; recognition of Israel;
and acceptance of previous agreements made by the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation. Back
10
Fifth Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Session 2008-09,
Global Security: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories:
Response of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs, Cm 7710, October 2009 Back
11
Foreign Affairs Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2008-09, Global
Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan, HC 302 Back
12
Eighth Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, Session 2008-09,
Global Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan: Response of the
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Cm
7702 Back
13
Oral evidence taken before the Foreign Affairs Committee on 10
December 2008, HC (2008-09) 79-i; 11 March 2009, HC (2008-09)
79-ii and 17 June 2009, HC (2008-09) 79-iii Back
14
Foreign Affairs Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2006-07, Visit
to Turkey and Cyprus, HC 473, para 3 Back
15
Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2008-09, Visit
to Cyprus, HC 196, para 6 Back
16
The Business and Enterprise Committee was renamed the Business,
Innovation and Skills Committee on 1 October 2009. Back
17
Business and Enterprise, Defence, Foreign Affairs and International
Development Committees, First Joint Report of Session 2008-09,
Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls (2009): UK Strategic Export
Controls Annual Report 2007, Quarterly Reports for 2008, licensing
policy and review of export control legislation, HC 178 Back
18
Ibid., para 2 Back
19
Ibid., para 9 Back
20
Ibid., para 9 Back
21
Business and Enterprise, Defence, Foreign Affairs and International
Development Committees, Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls (2009):
UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2007, Quarterly Reports
for 2008, licensing policy and review of export control legislation.
The Government's reply was published as Cm 7698 in October 2009. Back
22
Ibid., para 22 Back
23
First Joint Report of the Business and Enterprise, Defence,
Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees , Session
2008-09, Strategic Export Control: Her Majesty's Government's
Annual Report for 2007, Quarterly Reports for 2008, Licensing
Policy and Parliamentary Scrutiny: Response of the Secretaries
of State for Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, International
Development and Business, Innovation and Skills, Cm 7698,
October 2009, p 2 Back
24
Ibid., p 3 Back