European Council

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I agree with the concerns of the noble Lord. We will certainly be engaging closely with our partners. The summit next year that I mentioned will be focused on tackling serious and organised crime, anti-corruption and cybersecurity, and will include Prime Ministers and Foreign and Economic Ministers from the west Balkans and key partners such as France, Germany, Italy, Austria and the EU institutions. We are also providing a range of support to the region, including more law enforcement resources to tackle organised crime groups with links to the western Balkans, additional embassy staff, UK-led capacity building to build resilience to serious and organised crime in the region, and strategic communications expertise to the EU institutions to counter disinformation campaigns in the region. It is an issue that we take extremely seriously and that the Prime Minister led on in this Council meeting.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

I very much welcome what was said about supporting the negotiations with Japan and other trade negotiations that the EU is conducting. I welcome also the realism that the Prime Minister has shown in saying that those agreements when concluded will provide a good basis for our own agreements when we are outside the EU. However, where does that leave the argument that we have to leave the EU to have these benefits? Secondly, in the western Balkans there is again a very welcome development. Will the noble Baroness confirm that our co-operation will continue even if, as is very likely, the EU decides in June to co-ordinate its activity in the western Balkans through an operational headquarters in Brussels?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

On the first part of the noble Lord’s question, we are leaving the EU. That is the decision that has been made, and we will now work with our European partners to come to the best deal that we can between us. We will want excellent trade agreements with other countries. We continue to support the EU in ensuring that its economy as a whole improves, but want the best deals with our partners. We are absolutely committed to continuing to work with our European partners in the west Balkans. As the noble Lord said, it is extremely important to all our security.