Jim Murphy

Global Europe Seminars in Budapest and Warsaw

I've just returned from a fascinating two days in Budapest and Warsaw, where I met politicians, business leaders and academics to discuss how we can best work together, within Europe, to tackle the challenges of climate change, the credit crunch, and the Georgia crisis - to name but a few. And I took part in two seminars on the theme of "Building a successful and sustainable Europe".

Poland is, of course, a large and influential EU Member State - one of the "Big Six" - and a natural partner for the UK. We can find common cause on many issues, such as how to best respond to Russia's actions on Georgia. And we have a great deal to discuss on subjects where we differ - for example on the action that is needed to tackle climate change.

In Budapest I was reminded about how passionately Hungarians disagree about their politics, and also had very good discussions of EU issues with Kinga Göncz, the Hungarian Foreign Minister. We released a joint UK-Hungary Human Rights Declaration, emphasising the commitment of both our countries to protecting human rights, and eliminating all forms of discrimination, especially against the Roma, who are a vulnerable and marginalised group in many EU countries. The Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center, with its exhibition "From Deprivation of Rights to Genocide", was a moving example of quite how crucial it is to do everything we can to ensure that discrimination and hatred have no place in the 21st century world. Earlier in the week I had the chance to meet and talk to the remarkable Elie Wiesel at a dinner in London to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Holocaust Educational Trust.  Well done to the Trust for 20 years work in keeping the memory alive.

Posted at 16:35 18 September 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[2]

Georgia Latest

I agree with Robert who commented on this blog on 17 August - he's right to question whether punishing "ordinary folk" in Russia through imposing visa restrictions is really an effective and logical response to Russia's deplorable actions in the last 2 weeks. The UK's visa policy is always to focus this kind of action on the people responsible rather than the general public - that's why we targetted tightened visa restrictions at Russian officials only in our disagreement over Litvinenko, and why we did not change our visa policy towards ordinary Russians then and why we won't change it now. But we do need to send clear messages to Russia about their behaviour.  As the Foreign Secretary said today in his article in the Times we can't disengage.  The right response is hard-headed engagement to make sure that Russia understands the consequences of its actions. As Russia has breached international norms, the international community needs to respond as one.  The UK has been intensively engaged in international negotiations, including through the EU, G7 OSCE, NATO and the UN, to ensure an appropriate, unified response.

I regret to say that even now the situation on the ground throughout Georgia remains fluid and fragile. Although the ceasefire is largely continuing to hold there are some reports of continuing violence and this must stop immediately. And there are still Russian forces well beyond Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We welcomed the Russian statement that withdrawal was beginning but there is no sign whatsoever of this happening on the ground. We now we need to see evidence on the ground that Russia is living up to the commitments it has made.

The Foreign Secretary has been in Brussels again today, this time for a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of NATO countries.  Some of you will have seen that he has been making these points strongly.  The UK continues to offer Georgia both practical and political support in the short term - for example through sending immediate humanitarian aid - and longer term as they continue with their reform processes. The Foreign Secretary is right now flying to Tbilisi to discuss with partners there what we can do to help, and to see the situation on the ground for himself.

Posted at 16:57 19 August 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[7]

More on Russia

Thanks for the comments. In response to the questions I thought you might find the report by the Foreign Affairs Committee on Russia of interest.

Posted at 17:34 18 February 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[2]

Presidential elections in Russia

Elections will take place in Russia on 2 March to choose a new president and successor to Vladimir Putin.  It's important that these elections, as always, are free and fair.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has an important role to play in this.  So I was disappointed to hear that the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly  have been forced to withdraw from monitoring them.

As a participating State, Russia has freely signed up to OSCE principles and commitments to ensure democratic elections and to allow ODIHR unfettered access to observe the process from beginning to end.  But the restrictions imposed by the Russian government would not have allowed long term observers to view the pre-election processes and would have severely limited the overall number of observers ODIHR could send.

Free and fair elections are about much more than just counting votes on polling day.  Fair media coverage, freedom of speech for all candidates and the right to conduct political campaigns in a free manner throughout the campaign period are particularly important.

Posted at 10:24 13 February 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[4]