European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (Stabilisation and Association Agreement) (Republic of Montenegro) Order 2009

I rise not in any sense to oppose the order but to support it. It gives me great pleasure to see Montenegro reach this point. I have known the country since 1995 and its extremely wily, intelligent, clever and effective leader, Milo Djukanovic, for at least that long. As the noble Baroness said a few moments ago, it is an unbelievably beautiful country with a remarkable people. The ties with Britain go well back to Tennyson’s great eagle of liberty. Indeed, if you to Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro, you will find that the old British legation is still there. It is still right in the centre of what was at the heart of one of the real issues of freedom of the 19th century. I have four points to which I hope that the Government and the European Union will pay particular attention. Some have been covered already and I apologise if I cover them again. The first is the rule of law. It is the great gift of Europe to install the rule of law in countries such as these. I remember an old Bosnian coming to me and saying, "Is it true that when we join Europe it’ll be like when the Austrians were here? We pay too much tax and the Government will pay it back". I said, "Yes, it will", to which he said, "That’s fantastic. If that happens, it will be unbelievable". That was his reason for wanting to join. There is what my noble friend described as "bandit capitalism". Perhaps not everyone would use that phrase but there is a certain tradition that goes back deep into Montenegro’s past known as the Hajduk. The Hajduk is a sort of Robin Hood character—a rather romantic figure who lives in the mountains and robs but gives to the poor. I think it would be fair to say that this is a key issue for us to keep a close eye on. I recall going to see a very senior figure in the Montenegran Government in about 1997 or 1998 when we were trying to persuade Montenegro not to part company with Milosevic. I said to him, "You’re going to need more money". He replied, "Yes, but it’s not like your Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Brown, who has to raise taxes if he needs more money. All we have to do is smuggle more cigarettes to Italy". That was a long time ago and I feel certain that things will have changed, but it will require a strenuous application of the conditionality of the European Union if we are to achieve the necessary moves forward on the rule of law. The second issue—here I echo the words of the noble Baroness who spoke for Her Majesty’s Opposition—concerns war criminals. For six years I was next door on the other side of the river Drina, and for four years I was next door on the other side of the river Drina in Bosnia, when catching Radovan Karadzic was our first priority. I have absolutely no doubt that he was hidden by the Serbian Orthodox Church in the monasteries of Montenegro. To say that they did not co-operate would be an understatement. In fact, the Serbian Orthodox Church did all that it could—at least, with the knowledge if not the connivance of the Montenegran Government—to make sure that Karadzic was never brought to justice. My view is that the outstanding fugitive, Ratko Mladic, is not in Montenegro. I think that he is probably being protected either in Moscow or unofficially by certain renegade elements of the Serb security services. However, I would want to be assured that Montenegro fulfilled its full conditions under the ICTY legislation for the capture of war criminals. The third issue is the Moscow element, referred to by my noble friend. This is a small country—the population is about 600,000—and it is not difficult for it to be bought pretty well lock, stock and barrel by the Moscow mafia. Today, almost all the coast from the very beautiful coastal town of Budva past Sveti Stefan and east and south is owned by Moscow mafiosi, one of whom—I hope that I shall not be too insulting—is undoubtedly the very powerful figure of the mayor of Moscow, who owns some of the most prime areas there. I hope that we make it explicit to the Government of Podgorica that they must adhere to the rule according to European standards, not Russian standards. My penultimate point is about the Muslim population. It is very easy for us to forget that there is a large Muslim population outside Bosnia in the Sandžak and the area around Rožaje in Montenegro. By the way, the Montenegran Government have been extremely good at understanding the importance of preserving ethnic harmony with the Muslim minority in Albania. I have no word of criticism for their policies in this regard, but it is an area in which we would wish to support them and help them to ensure that they continue to observe those policies. They always have done so and the policies stand in stark contrast to, for instance, the policy that was followed in neighbouring Serbia—at least in the days of President Milosevic. My final point is the most important one. It gives me real pleasure to see Montenegro reach this point, which I hope will be reached by all other countries of the western Balkans. But there is a problem. The precedent created by the breakaway of Montenegro from Serbian Montenegro, as it was originally, is being followed actively and explicitly by Milorad Dodik, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, as a precedent to follow in Bosnia—with a deliberate intention, explicitly stated by him, that if he is to make Bosnia dysfunctional in the same way as, in effect, happened in the Serbia-Montenegro state, the consequence will be that the Republic of Srpska could follow Montenegro and split away. That would be a catastrophe and would lead us straight back to war. If we were to tolerate that, it would mean that the European Union was prepared to lay its hands to the policy of Radovan Karadzic in dividing up Bosnia, as it were by absentmindedness or worse. The noble Baroness referred to "bratstvo", which is the word for brotherhood. In the old days of Tito it was "bratstvo i jedinstvo"—brotherhood and unity. That has been followed more recently by that other Balkan saying which has dominated—"Da komsiji crkne krava", which means, "My neighbour’s cow is dead, that makes me happy". That has been the policy. I hope that we will return to a policy of bratstvo i jedinstvo within the European Union. But that means—and I hope that the Minister will respond to this directly—that we must make it explicitly clear to the Government of Podgorica that their passage further down the road to Europe would be blocked if they did not support European policy in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that if they continued to give tacit encouragement to cessationism by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, that would effectively block any further passage towards membership of the European Union. If we allowed Dodik to use Djukanovic as the model for breaking up Bosnia, whatever we do to help Montenegro towards a European future, we will be denying Bosnia a similar future. I hope we will take a very strong line on that.