European Union (Accessions) Bill

I should be very happy to do so and I welcome that suggestion. I turn to the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Kilclooney, about competition in wage rates and tax. First, there is bound to be competition in wage rates. There is competition in wage rates across the European Union at present. We do not all have the same wage rates, industry by industry—or sector by sector, for that matter. I do not see that, so long as we have wholly free-standing economies and people negotiate their wages or have their wages determined in whatever way, it is ever likely that wage rates will reach a single level across the EU. That is not even true over weeks and months within our economy, let alone across wider geographical areas. It is one of the functions of competition that there will be variation in wage rates. There will also be competition in tax. One question that arose recently was when people asked whether the European Commission was intent on producing a level of European tax. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right honourable friend Gordon Brown, made the point in terms that we see real value in the possibility of competition in tax rates. That is legitimate competition between states. It is not an argument for taxation or avoidance of taxation that gets to the edge of unfair competition—that is always to be avoided—but competition in other respects over tax rates will remain part of the functioning of our economy and, in my belief, of other member states’ economies, because there will not be a European tax levied as an alternative to national decisions. I hope that that gives reassurance; that remains firmly the Government’s policy. I apologise to the Committee for going through all of those details, but these were substantive points which go to the heart of the Bill. Clause 1 was probably the right Christmas tree on which to hang all of these things.