European Council

Mark Lazarowicz Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

The maritime security strategy is about trying to make the different efforts of the 28 European Governments over matters such as piracy and port security more cohesive and co-ordinated than they are at present. It does not involve any kind of direction. It is trying to establish a framework for effective partnership and working together so that we have fewer weak links in security—whether it be maritime or terrestrial—anywhere across the continent of Europe. Any weakness in security arrangements elsewhere in Europe can end up providing a point of entry for people who want to threaten our interests directly, so this sort of effective working together is very much in the interests of this country.

[Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)]

What the Minister has told us about the European Council discussions is obviously welcome, but six days before the European Council an Amnesty International report said:

“European leaders should hang their heads in shame over the pitifully low numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle”.

Is it not the fact that Europe as a whole, with the exception of Germany, has been failing in its humanitarian duty to support refugees from Syria? Should not this have been pursued more actively by our own Prime Minister at the European Council, and should not it be taken forward in other European forums as well?

[Mr Lidington]

It is a pity that the hon. Gentleman did not acknowledge the very significant sums of humanitarian relief that this country has provided through the Department for International Development. What we surely want to see in Syria is a ceasefire leading to a political settlement that enables Syrian people to return home, rather than to be dispersed into a diaspora community around the rest of the world.