European Union (Accessions) Bill

My Lords, the conventions of the House are that there is no vote on Second Reading, and I acknowledge that. If there were, it would certainly have my support, although I would wish to argue that the extension of the European Union cries aloud for major reforms to its institutions. My noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford mentioned that he had recently been in Sofia. I heard that with great envy. Fifty years ago I paid my only ever visit to Bulgaria, to be a member of an international youth camp organised by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, which the Minister will realise at once was a communist front organisation. Had I been a member of the Labour Party, I would have been proscribed for such initiative. That I bare, but will take no further, as this is not the occasion for personal reminiscence. I want to make three points. I want to consider the geography of Europe in the light of the legislation. Secondly, I want to talk about the economics, particularly the problem of financing, as has been demonstrated vividly over recent days with the settling of the budget. Finally, I want to revert to the problem of the constitution. First of all, on the geography, as has been demonstrated, this is not a question of drawing the line. Charles Stewart Parnell once said that no man can halt the march of a nation, and we are rather in that mood as far as the European Union is concerned. I accept at once that this is not the end of the expansion of Europe. The treaty on the prospective accession of Romania and Bulgaria invites the immediate consideration of the expansion of the European Union to the south-west, to incorporate the Balkan territories whose prospective accession was discussed quite recently in the context of Croatia. I will go no further on that. This afternoon at least we can reflect that the whole question of Ukrainian membership becomes that much more live. My noble friend Lord Howell mentioned it, and I note that it is also the view of the noble Lord, Lord Anderson. It is a great temptation. I share much of the cultural instincts of the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, about seeing Europe not merely in economic and political terms, but also in cultural terms. I cannot see the Uniate church without feeling a strong sense of rapport. On the other hand, there is no doubt that that expansion will raise delicate issues with our immediate neighbourhood, with Russia. That is not an expansion that we can undertake without making full judgment of what will be the wider consequences. I leave it in those rather elliptical terms, which are none the less very real. I now turn for a moment to the question of finance. I am not going to join the general chorus of applause and doom that has attended the recent budget negotiations. I think that the Prime Minister had a difficult hand to play, and I am not among his foremost critics. Are we really to suppose that the common agricultural policy will be that much easier to dismantle on account of the accession of these two countries? I rather doubt it. They both have strong agricultural interests, which they will be determined to protect. That is as I understand it. Can the Minister indicate what are the kinds of reform that the Government have in mind in respect of the common agricultural policy that can then encompass the interests of Romania and Bulgaria? Does he foresee the single payments, which will be at the heart of agricultural expenditure over the period we are surveying, being subject to a reduction? That course is advised by an academic writing in the Times today; it is over the brow of the future, but it will become part of the immediate consequences when we discuss the implied accession of Romania and Bulgaria. Secondly, and probably of equal challenge to the prudent financing of the European Union, is the question of accession payments. I quite understand that every eastern European country which is joining the European Union needs some kind of Marshall aid. But it should be kept as modest as possible; above all, it should be seen as a transitional payment. I say this because I believe that those countries will make their way in the European family largely by virtue of their own exertions. They have the basic advantage that whatever may have been the misfortunes of communist rule, education was not a casualty. Therefore, their sheer nationhood and population are formidable weapons in adjusting to the economic patterns of western Europe. There is a certain paradox here: the more we welcome the movement of labour—and I do—the more we realise that quite often the people who will come to the West from eastern Europe could do a tremendous task in raising standards in their own country. Very often, those who come to the West are among the most enterprising and achieving. I do not wish to establish any barrier against that free movement of labour, but we would find ourselves caught in the most dreadful problem if we had to make substantial budgetary payments to eastern Europe on account of the migration of their best westwards. I do not wish to be confrontational, but I see, hidden in the situation, the prospect of trying to resolve all the difficulties by having recourse to higher spending. We understand that the deal was eventually brokered last week by a modest addition to the Community budget. I promise that when the Prime Minister goes before the European Parliament this afternoon he will be confronted by cries for a much more ambitious budget. Of course the European Parliament will call for a more ambitious budget because those are not the politicians who will have to confront the taxpayer with the consequences. The split between the institutions of the Community and the long-standing institutions of nation states will become much more sensitive as we approach the situation of greater and greater spending on accession assistance. The Commission, helpfully at this stage of the argument—I quote from today’s Evening Standard—is proposing a European tax, which would be levied by the institutions of the European Union and collected direct from the taxpayers of individual countries. That is like advising someone with a common cold to seek the cure for bubonic plague. I cannot think of anything that would give rise to more antagonism and disillusionment towards the idea of a European partnership. That takes me to my third point—the constitution. My noble friend Lord Howell said that it had sunk and settled on the seabed. Well, I have news for him. Angela Merkel, replete in a Mae West suit, is floating, and now swimming hard for the shore. I quote from the grand coalition’s reform programme:"““We pledge to continue the ratification of the European constitutional treaty after the first half of 2006 and to give new impulses to [the ratification] under the German presidency in the first half of 2007””." We have been given appropriate notice. I think we are all agreed that the present institutional arrangements are not appropriate for a Europe expanding way beyond what was ever within the conception of the founding fathers. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, wants a good debate on the Floor of this Chamber. That is fine, but it is inevitable that that debate will be carried to the British public. That pattern has already been accepted. If we have any vision for Europe, it must be a performance that will appeal as much to the man in the street as the man in the London club.