European Union (Accessions) Bill

I repeat that I certainly did not intend to imply any criticism of the hon. Gentleman. I simply wanted to highlight the fact that politicians from western countries do not necessarily have the time to understand the true picture in some of these eastern European countries. The Minister stated that €5 billion—I hope I have that right—will be spent on improving agriculture in Romania and Bulgaria. He said, though, that that was not a definitive figure, and I understand why: the actual cost will be far greater. We all know that, with Government targets, the figures are in the end much higher than the initial projections. As my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) stated, Romanian agriculture is, with no disrespect to Romania, extremely backward. One can still see oxen and carts or ploughs rather than tractors. It is so far behind the United Kingdom that it will need a great deal of money to bring it up to our levels. That concerns me because I represent many hard-working, decent farmers in Shrewsbury and Atcham, including sugar beet and milk producers who are battling to save agriculture and trying to make a living. The Government are now talking about common agricultural policy reforms and, perhaps, lowering agricultural subsidies in exchange for an agreement at the World Trade Organisation. That is all well and good, but, at the same time as it is lowering subsidies for our farmers, the European Union will be pouring billions of pounds of investment into Romania and Bulgaria to get their agriculture up to our standards. That is a real concern. My priority is farmers in Shrewsbury rather than those in Romania.