European Union (Accessions) Bill

I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen). I am reminded that a favourite adage of mine is that pessimism of the intellect should not breed optimism of the will. I hope that the pessimism of his intellect will breed the optimism of our will to welcome Romania and Bulgaria into the EU under the accession treaty. I am also pleased to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins), who sees the EU as the problem, when I see it as the solution to the problems that have been outlined in the contributions so far. I welcome the accession treaty. I take the admonition not to give a travelogue, but I visited Romania with the hon. Member for Totnes and the European Scrutiny Committee, and I had a chance to speak first hand to people at all levels of Parliament, the Government and non-governmental organisations there. As always, when I go to those places, I pop into a café or two and have a chat with some of the younger people and hear their aspirations. I found a similar message to the one that I found when we visited the countries involved in the last enlargement. There are problems and there is much to be done, but they view the ability to accede to membership of the EU as a very bright light at the end of a tunnel that they have been travelling through since the time when they were trapped in the previous regime and saw their lifestyles and standards deteriorate. In welcoming particularly clause 1 on the accession treaty, I accept that there is much to be done, including the things outlined by the hon. Member for Totnes, although we might find that what he said about agriculture is paralleled by the abuses that we have found in this country, even under our very strict laws on the treatment of animals. Neither their treatment of animals, nor their treatment of children and other members of their community will be accepted. That is where the EU comes into its own. Unlike my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North, I see the EU and its attempt to create a level playing field for all as a great benefit. We should not allow people to hang their political hats on the EU hook; they must conform to the process of accession. In fact, by 2007, Romania must adopt 29 provisions of the acquis—what a great difference that will make—and then the transition funds and eventually the structural funds that will become available will help Romania to do the very things that he says should be done. I certainly think that they should be done.