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Western Balkans

: I would like to congratulate the hon. Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Randall) on securing this important debate and I commend him on his evident longstanding commitment to, and understanding of, the region. Indeed, although I am not in complete agreement with his points he raised, I have no doubt that our debates in this place are enriched by the sort of depth of knowledge and understanding exhibited during today's debate. As the hon. Gentleman pointed out, there have been a number of recent, significant events that have affected the countries of the western Balkans, from the beginning of the process to determine Kosovo's final status, to the death of Milosevic, to the remarkable agreement in Bosnia on the first changes to their constitution since the end of the war in 1995. The latter is in part the legacy of Lord Ashdown, who departed Bosnia as high representative in January this year, and his tireless efforts to transform Bosnia into a functioning state with the prospects of EU and NATO integration within reach. I hope that we can find common accord in paying tribute to the efforts of Lord Ashdown and his successes in recent years in Bosnia. Before moving on to some of the substantive points raised, I shall first deal with the issue of the British Association for Central and Eastern Europe, which was put to me directly by the hon. Gentleman at the beginning of his speech. I am very familiar with the subject, having had correspondence from BACEE on several occasions, not least from its chairman, Lord Radice, and I assure the hon. Gentleman that we support the continuing work of BACEE in this part of the world. Indeed, by a coincidence of timing, I understand that officials from the Foreign Office are briefing members of BACEE as we speak. On the point of funding put to me by the hon. Gentleman, there will be a significant alteration to BACEE's funding in the years to come, but for the record, I emphasise that that in no way diminishes the importance of the work that BACEE can do through securing other income streams in the future, and that situation is not unique to BACEE. Other organisations that previously were directly funded through a block grant from the Foreign Office continue to do important work while the Foreign Office reallocates resources according to its strategic priorities. There is an ongoing dialogue between the Foreign Office and BACEE which I hope will continue as BACEE makes the important transition to being a different kind of organisation, but one that will be equally capable of meeting the important needs of that part of the world. As the hon. Gentleman said at the conclusion of his remarks, we have limited time. Therefore, I shall not attempt to cover all the issues affecting the western Balkans in the time available today. Instead, I would like to concentrate on the issues that the hon. Gentleman raised: Kosovo and Montenegro, and the death of Milosevic and the wider impact on the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. To set the context for this discussion, 2005 was an extremely successful year for United Kingdom policy in the Balkans. A key objective of our European Union presidency was to ensure that the whole region embedded its relationship with the EU. Under our presidency in the second half of last year, the EU opened accession negotiations with Croatia on 3 October and declared Macedonia a candidate for membership of the EU. Bosnia and Serbia and Montenegro started negotiations for stabilisation and association agreements, and the Kosovo final status talks were launched in November. Even more extraordinarily, after a full 10 years of failure by the Bosnian and Serbian authorities to transfer any war criminals to the tribunal, 22 indictees were delivered to The Hague in 2005, although Mladic and Karadzic, the two architects of Bosnia's policy of ethnic cleansing, remain at large. UK leadership in the contact group, the United Nations, NATO and the EU was vital to those achievements, as was the prominent role played by our diplomatic posts in the region—a group of individuals and institutions to whom I am happy to pay tribute this morning. The process to determine Kosovo's final status as envisaged in UN Security Council resolution 1244 which ended the war in 1999 is now under way. This was one of the key issues in the hon. Gentleman's remarks. Martti Ahtisaari, the UN status envoy, is leading the process, and he enjoys the Government's fullest support. Settlement of Kosovo's status is one of the last pieces of unfinished business resulting from the violent break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The other is the tribunal, which I shall discuss in a moment. Any settlement must be sustainable and fair, and provide effective guarantees for Kosovo's minority communities. The contact group remains strongly engaged in the final status discussions. The statement issued by the contact group Foreign Ministers at a meeting in London on 31 January injected renewed political support for Martti Ahtisaari. It made it clear that all possible efforts should be made to achieve a negotiated settlement in 2006. We will spare no effort to work towards that goal. However, such a settlement must take into account the views of the people of Kosovo, the overwhelming majority of which favour independence from Serbia and Montenegro. That reality cannot be ignored. The past disastrous policies in Serbia lie at the heart of the problems that we confront in Kosovo now.