European Council and Libya

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:51 pm on 29 March 2004.

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Photo of Lord Hannay of Chiswick Lord Hannay of Chiswick Crossbench 4:51, 29 March 2004

My Lords, does the noble Baroness accept my congratulations to the Prime Minister on his visit to Tripoli in the same terms as those offered by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams? Does she not agree that one of the most interesting and encouraging aspects of the visit was the way in which it responded to Colonel Gaddafi's surrender of his nuclear, chemical and biological capabilities? In anyone's book, surely that is a step in the right direction of reinforcing collective security. It is extraordinarily unusual.

A few years ago, we could have imagined Colonel Gaddafi surrendering the two men who were indicted to stand trial, but could we seriously have supposed that he would be shipping large quantities of weapons material out to the United States? I rather doubt it. Rather than concentrating on the trivia, such as the colour of the tent and the number of camels that were galloping around, it would be useful if we, and the press, could focus on things that really matter.

On Cyprus, I, too, should like to applaud the line taken by the European Council, its support for Kofi Annan's efforts and its determination to accommodate any settlement that Kofi Annan puts forward. That is crucially important. Does the noble Baroness not agree that if, alas, it becomes necessary to move to the third stage where Kofi Annan bridges the gaps because it has not been possible to reach agreement between the two parties and Greece and Turkey, and takes them up on their commitment to put that to a referendum, it would be incomprehensible if anyone concerned, particularly the leaders of a future member state of the European Union—that applies to Turkey and Cyprus—were to do other than to campaign for a "yes" vote in the referendum?

On the constitutional agreement, since the 1970s every British Government have questioned whether to take more decisions in Brussels and whether they should be taken by a qualified majority vote, which should be decided on the criterion of whether it was in Britain's interests to do so. Despite that, is it not strange that it appears that there is a new doctrine which says that the taking of decisions in Brussels, the taking of new decisions by a qualified majority, is ipso facto a bad thing just because that change is being made, irrespective of whether it is in this country's interest or not?

I should like to echo the plea made by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams. The Government should now step up their explanatory statements on what is in the constitutional agreement and why it is in Britain's interests to go ahead with it as long as our vital interests are protected in the negotiations. It is rather sad to see people claiming that there has not been such a change in Britain since the 17th century. I fear that that is a commentary on the teaching of history in British schools: in this case, I assume it is the private schools rather than the public sector. It is bizarre that quite a lot that happened in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and any understanding of the relative importance of the various treaties on which the European Union is based should be ignored.