David Miliband

Visit to Bosnia

Last week I made a brief visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a country with a clear Euro-Atlantic perspective, but it’s struggling to make progress on a range of reforms to help deliver progress on EU and NATO membership. My meeting with political leaders provided an opportunity to reiterate UK support for the 'Butmir' process - an ongoing EU/US initiative to energise the reform agenda. This includes working towards completion of the conditionality set by the International Community for closure of the Office of the High Representative in BiH, as well as reforms to make the structure and decision making processes within government more effective.

Although there are currently stark differences between some political leaders on their vision for future governance arrangements, I remain convinced there is enough common ground to reach an agreement.

The ongoing trial of Radovan Karadzic shows that the legacy of the conflict remains prominent. I saw the remarkable work that the International Commission on Missing Persons are doing to identify the remains of those missing and support the ICTY and regional courts. This is helping bring justice and closure to victims of the conflict from all ethnic groups. 

Posted at 11:18 11 November 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Belarus – Football and Politics

Tonight England's football team plays its second match in a week against Eastern European opposition. Both teams represent large countries sandwiched between Russia to the east and European Union member states to the west. But Belarus and Ukraine have taken very different paths since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Whereas – albeit with some wobbles – Ukraine has chosen to commit to a path of democracy and economic and social reform; Belarus has not yet signed up to what we would recognise as European values.

More progress on political reforms and economic liberalisation is needed. But there are some positive signs: last year, the Belarusian authorities released the last three remaining political prisoners, an important signal that Belarus wanted to renew its relationship with the EU.  The EU is keen to help Belarus make economic and political changes: this spring, Belarus joined the EU’s Eastern Partnership, which gives it the opportunity to take part in projects on energy security, border security and social and economic development, and to improve its relationships with its neighbours.

Belarus is a country that has suffered a lot in the past – most graphically after Chernobyl – and whose people deserve the hope of a more prosperous, democratic future. The EU is a key partner in promoting reform – offering Belarus not an alternative to ties with other neighbours but a wider support network.

Posted at 16:59 14 October 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

Tagliavini report on the Georgia-Russia conflict

Last week’s publication of the Tagliavini report on the Georgia-Russia conflict is another reminder of the importance of conflict prevention. There are lessons to be learned. The international community should ensure international mechanisms (such as the Geneva process) contribute to solutions, that all parties meet their obligations and, crucially, that those who have committed human rights abuses are brought to justice.

But there are still many issues that need to be resolved. Russia needs to use its influence to allow access for humanitarian organisations and international observers to South Ossetia and Abkhazia – EU monitors are still being barred. And internally displaced persons must be allowed to return home – over 30,000 are still unable to.

To progress, we also need to build confidence between the parties. That is why I applaud the success of  a package of joint Russia-UK-Georgia over-flight missions that was completed last week under the auspices of the Open Skies Treaty (a military treaty unrelated to commercial Open Skies arrangements). These flights showed that progress can be made on arms control treaties even amidst the most trying circumstances. It is testament to the professionalism not just of British forces, but of their Georgian and Russian counterparts, that the missions went so smoothly.

Posted at 17:20 08 October 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

EU in Zimbabwe

I welcome the EU mission to Zimbabwe. The representatives played their cards well - supporting the global political agreement, but making enhanced EU support contingent on its implementation. The team recognised political realities, meeting both President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

But they also made clear that they backed reform, and that  the measures targeted on the Mugabe elite could not be lifted as a prelude to the return to the status quo ante. The EU is the world's second biggest aid donor. It will need to play an important role in the reconstruction of Zimbabwe. And it needs to do it step by step.

Posted at 12:27 15 September 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Useful summits?

At Paris' Sciences Po University yesterday I said that if Europe successfully led the way to global climate deal, the EU would come to be recognised as an "Environmental Union". It is an uphill struggle towards a deal because of the competing pressures on time, money and political capital around the world.

Less than 100 days before the Copenhagen meeting the detailed negotiations need a political lift. One opportunity is the SIX EU summits with third countries between now and December - South Africa, Brazil, USA, India, Russia, China.

The Swedish presidency, which will lead the EU delegation, say climate change will be the centrepiece of the summits. At each there needs to be hard talking about the components of a deal - targets, financing, technology.

Posted at 13:14 09 September 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

Iceland and the EU

Last week I spoke to Ossur Skarphedinsson, the Foreign Minister of Iceland, to congratulate him on his country's decision to apply to join the EU. I said that the UK was a strong supporter of this application and wanted to see Iceland as a full member as soon as possible. Iceland is of course a small European country with deep democratic roots but which has been hit hard by the global financial and economic crisis. The application is a vote of confidence that the prospect of joining the EU can help them emerge more quickly from the crisis.

Posted at 16:36 22 July 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Icesave - good news from Reykjavik

Very pleased to hear the news from Reykjavik that we've reached agreement on the way to draw a line under the Icesave saga so that UK taxpayers' money is refunded and Iceland's economy is given the space to re-establish itself. I'm looking forward to a rapid restoration of the excellent relations the UK and Iceland enjoy.

As Iceland considers EU membership I wish Ossur Skarrphedinsson and his colleagues well as they debate this question in one of the world's oldest Parliaments.

Posted at 17:52 09 June 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Europe Doesn't Stop at the Pyrenees

Talleyrand said, apparently, that Europe stops at the Pyrenees. But Churchill got it right. He came to Turkey - where I am - during the Battle of Stalingrad to speak of the need for "an instrument of European government", with Turkey as part of it.

Churchill was right then and it is right now. Turkey will be the second fastest growing economy in the world by 2017 according to the OECD. It balances secularism and religious identity. It is on a reform path that is not just about Istanbul and Ankara - I met five mayors and governors from around the country as part of the British council's My City' programme  who are going to share European installation art to bring their cities to European attention.

It is a time for determination not hesitation. Turkey is not ready to join the EU now. But we have a huge amount to gain from pursuing and achieving the goal.

Posted at 16:43 28 May 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[10]

Broad minded in Athens

I am in Athens to discuss cooperation between UK and Greece.  Greek foreign policy, spurred on by chairmanship of the OSCE, stretches from trying to keep alive an OSCE presence in Georgia - frustrated by Russian insistence on separate missions to Abkhazia and South Ossetia- to a forward position on Turkish accession to the EU, and an important role in Cyprus talks.  

The UK and Greece agree more often than people realise.  Or at least we do around the EU table.

Posted at 11:27 26 May 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

26 for Lisbon

The vote of the Czech senate yesterday to ratify the Lisbon treaty does not bring closer a European superstate but it does bring closer some greater rationality and efficiency to European affairs.

Europe does have a foreign policy already but it needs to be better organised and needs a strong British voice at its heart.

Posted at 16:17 08 May 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[5]

Change in Iceland

Iceland burst onto British headlines last year at the outset of the economic crisis. It has not made it back onto the front pages this week, but there have been headlines inside about a major shift in its election, and the promise of the new Social Democratic coalition government to make a priority of membership of the European Union.

This is a good thing. Britain has a long history of working closely with Iceland (with a couple of hiccups).  The negotiations should, by EU standards, be relatively quick, and I look forward to their successful conclusion.

Posted at 14:20 29 April 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

European Unity Yes, But Diversity Too

Further to my speech at LSE last week on European responsibilities in responding to the economic crisis, here is a good rejoinder to the lumping together of all East European countries in an East vs. West bit of simplistic division.  Krzysztof Bobinski points out  that thinking of Eastern Europe as just a group of former Soviet satellites is completely to miss their distinctiveness - not least, I think I am right in saying, that Poland has not had a banking crisis. 

He also makes a good point that the more the EU looks like it might stall on enlargement the more it creates a dynamic in countries that lose the vision of European integration as a discipline on domestic politics.  Hence the importance of telling the Serbian Deputy PM last week that we remain committed to the ideal I discussed in Belgrade last year, and going to Turkey next month to restate the benefits of Turkey joining the EU.

Posted at 11:39 18 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

Euroscepticism 2

There is also a good column in the Economist  making the point that the EU's trading and institutional rules, for all their stresses and strains, are a vital and new bulwark against a return of 1930s economics and politics.

Posted at 17:23 06 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

Euroscepticism is Yesterday's Creed

There's some wishful thinking in the air, judging by the less than rapturous acclaim for the European response to the financial crisis, but Gideon Rachman's piece in the FT this week  on this theme - disowning his own euroscepticism - is worth reading. His basic argument, that Europe's economic, democratic and social/environmental gains need to be defended, and that this can only be done from within the tent, and with proposals for renewal, is absolutely right.

There are lessons for eurosceptics and europhiles in the financial crisis, and I will look at them in a speech on Monday at the Policy Network conference at the LSE: "An EU Fit for Purpose in a Modern Age"    My argument will be that Europe's gains can only be preserved by further policy reform. It's an argument for European engagement, not isolation.

And as the Prime Minister pointed out in his speech to the US Congress this week , bilateral and multilateral relationships across the Atlantic are mutually reinforcing. It is good for Britain for the EU-US relationship to be close and effective. Every US president since John Kennedy has supported a more united Europe. Barack Obama is no exception. We cut off our nose to spite our face by thinking that we preserve the strength of the US-UK relationship if we neglect the EU-US relationship.

Posted at 17:19 06 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

Munich Security Conference

This article from the Atlantic Press Review Blog discusses some interesting comment pieces on NATO at 60. These are issues I'm grappling with at the moment. Tomorrow I make a speech  at the Wehrkunder Security Conference in Munich. Its about how NATO and the EU can deal with both conventional security threats within its borders, and the new global threats from terrorism, climate change and nuclear proliferation.  This is a great opportunity for Europe, NATO, and the world to think clearly and deeply about our common security. I look forward to a fascinating debate with many of the world's leaders in attendance.

Posted at 20:52 05 February 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[6]