European Union (Accessions) Bill

They certainly do not vote Liberal Democrat. The Prime Minister himself said in February 2000 that Britain could, of course, survive outside the EU and that we could probably access the single market as Norway and Switzerland do, but think of the changes that have taken place since then. I have strongly urged my party to be realistic about getting reforms under way—whether that is while we are in opposition or, hopefully, when we are in government—before the compression chamber that is being created implodes. The application of the Maastricht surveillance criteria is about as deadly, boring and tedious a subject as one can possibly imagine, but I was glancing at a book in the Library last night about the impact of EUROSTAT case law. I suspect that no one has the faintest idea that such a book is there to be read, even if they had the time or inclination to do so. However, the application has an extremely serious impact on the way in which the criteria for each member states are collated by the European Union through EUROSTAT. That is the basis on which economic forecasting is made and economic criteria are judged for member states, including—under the Bill—accession states such as Bulgaria and Romania. It might surprise some hon. Members that Hungary, which has been brought into the loop of member states only recently, is being pursued under the terms of the avowedly failed stability and growth pact. I opposed the pact vigorously when my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) was Chancellor of the Exchequer and exchanged strong correspondence with him about it. He wrote to all Members of Parliament to say what a wonderful deal it was, and I wrote to all Conservative Members to tell them not to vote for it because it was going to be a disaster. It was an accident waiting to happen—sure enough, it did. Due to the failed stability and growth pact, it is suggested that action by Hungary under the excessive deficit procedure is inadequate. The country is being told that it is simply not complying with the rules. The Commission states that in September 2005, the Hungarian authorities submitted a revised excessive deficit procedure notification to announce that it had a 2005 deficit of 6.1 per cent. of GDP instead of the targeted 3.6 per cent.—that is double.