Derek McDowell (Labour)

I join others in welcoming the opportunity to speak on this Bill. The legislation is another milestone on a road we will reach the end of on 1 May next. That will be a very important date in the 21st century history of Europe. A line will finally be drawn under the post-Second World War arrangements of Europe.

It is remarkable to think back 12 or 13 years to when six of the ten countries which will accede next May did not even exist in their current form. The three Baltic states were very much in the iron embrace of the Soviet Union while Slovakia and the Czech Republic were locked in a loveless marriage. Slovenia was part of Tito's Yugoslavia. It is a small measure of the events in those countries in 13 years that they are now independent states which are willing to share their sovereignty with the rest of us in a new Europe. From that process flows opportunity and diversity, but also some tensions and problems which we would do well to acknowledge.

Some of these countries have a concern about security which is foreign to us. They have priorities, therefore, which we will not necessarily share. Countries which border Russia, not least of which are the Baltic states, are motivated at least as much by a desire to be protected from that neighbour as they are by economic development and the creation of a new Europe. The latter motives were behind the accessions of member states in the past. The accession countries may push for a form of security policy in Europe which we will not necessarily support. Many of these countries have a grá for the United States of America which is not shared by everybody in old Europe. That was reflected in the fact that Hungary and Romania were willing to provide military and logistical assistance to the USA during its Iraqi adventure. That was a mistake and something I am unwilling to support.