EU: UK Membership

My Lords, I feel like a queasy quasar among the galaxy of stars who have already spoken in this debate and are to follow me. I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord McNally, on initiating this debate and leading the Liberal Democrats, who have been the outriders for the pro-European cause in this country for many years. I will also pass comment on the 10 years of Tony Blair as our Prime Minister with respect to the European Union. I know that our colleagues on the further Benches have had criticisms from time to time, but there has been an enormous change in our attitudes to the European Union in those 10 years. When the Prime Minister came to power in 1997, we had few friends. We had the beef dispute and the stand-off. All that has now changed. There have been some real achievements in the between times, most notably enlargement. If I have a regret, I suppose it is our failure to join the euro. I remind the Euro-sceptics who will perhaps read this debate that all that they said about the euro and the single currency has not come to pass. Indeed, the euro seems to strengthen as each day passes. It is clear that the difficulty that the Labour Government have had from time to time has been the press’s antagonistic attitude to explaining the European Union. Indeed, the press’s short attention span seldom prevented it being attention seeking; I sometimes say ““attention spinning””. I will give your Lordships some examples of how that atmosphere has lightened. Some 10 years ago, in Cheshire, I was invited by the chief fire officer to preside over a conference on European fire safety, and we received guests from all around the European Union. Last year, we repeated that conference here in the Houses of Parliament, and we were able to share best practice. However, times have moved on and new opportunities and threats have arisen, most notably climate change and the effect it will have on the European Union and the call it will make on the fire and emergency services. I was so pleased that we were able to gather some of the top minds in the European Union as it was an example of what it does best. Another matter is enlargement. I hope that the Minister will look kindly on some of our new colleagues who are now fully participating in the enterprise and building solidarity by being part of27 countries in a strong European Union. I reminded him the other day in the corridor of Wroclaw, whose ambition is to be the city of tourism and hospitality in the future. I hope that the United Kingdom can show solidarity in supporting its worthy cause. We do not have many Euro-sceptics present today, but if they were here, they would doubtless be calling for withdrawal. We need to challenge those arguments. What would happen on the first day after we withdrew from the European Union? We would immediately start negotiating thousands of bilateral treaties to try to get back into mainland Europe and to help our businessmen, bus drivers and buskers take part in it. An example of Euro-sceptic thinking is found in the document paradoxically called Open Europe, but it seems to me that it wants to close Europe down. Those noble Lords who have examined the inside covers of the document will have noticed that they are printed upside down, which gives an indication of the way its writers look at the world, which is not acceptable to us. The document quotes my former colleague, Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament and describes his words on QMV as ““admirably frank””. I hope the Minister will turn his attention to that subject. Hans-Gert makes the point that unless we have more QMV voting, we will not make progress, in particular in the single market. The United Kingdom has always had great interest in developing the single market, and sometimes our businesses and consumers have been frustrated by the occasionally slow pace of its development. It is to our advantage to increase QMV, especially in those areas. I know that the question coming up shortly has more to do with JHA matters, but I nevertheless encourage the Minister to respond to that. Many of use have received a brief about financial services from the City of London. What a barometric change, mercurial or otherwise, we see in it. I remember that a decade ago it was largely sceptical. It now says: "““As the significance of European legislation in this area has grown in recent years, there has been far greater coordination of thinking about the future direction of the single market for financial services, combined with an acceptance of the need to pool resources. The City Corporation has for some time been involved in facilitating contact between the City and the EU institutions, primarily the European Parliament and European Commission””." It would not do that unless it saw a change. It reports to us that the London wholesale financial sector has contributed through the European Union to world economic activity something like €644 billion. It is clearly a dynamic financial sector that will improve and widen its scope even more if we are able to release it within the single market of financial services. It makes the crucial point that an effective financial market within the European Union aids and abets the business community and what we seek in terms of competitiveness. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe, and my noble friend Lord Clinton-Davis mentioned Lord Cockfield. The development and completion of the single market—a single market which always changes; as a dynamic being, it has to—is our single most important task. From time to time we talk about trying to convince the citizens of this country and the European Union beyond about this. If we fasten ourselves to the task of completing the market, even as it moves away from us, that will bring the riches, the prosperity and the opportunities which our voters would embrace. They could then see why the European Union is good and useful to them. In my closing minutes I ask my noble friend to turn his attention to some of the problems that come with the possible restitution of the constitution, or mini constitution that may come about. As a member of the British-Netherlands All-Party Parliamentary Group I ask him what is his attitude to our Dutch colleagues. They are crucial to us. They share many of the UK’s values, are near neighbours and share historical ties. Indeed, this year we celebrate the400 years since we were invaded by the Dutch fleet up the Thames. The Netherlands is a founder member of the European Union and a smaller country, which is significant. It was one of the two countries which said ““no””. Although Euro-sceptics tried to portray it as saying no to the European Union, I do not think that was so. There was unpopular government at the time, social spending was being cut and there was resentment at what was perceived as the larger countries, France and Germany, getting away with infracting the stability pact. There were perceived price rises as two guilders were more or less equivalent to one euro, some price descriptions were unhelpful, and there was concern about enlargement. On that last concern, will my noble friend react to the Dutch proposal to include the Copenhagen criteria within the re-formed constitution? Are we keen to encourage that? The Netherlands would also like to strengthen the yellow card system for national Parliaments being able to alert national Parliaments to any problems they foresee on the horizon regarding national interest. Are we sympathetic to that? The question has already been raised about the charter of human rights. What will be the nature of any protocol, if it is so written? Will it be legally binding or will it be aspirational and advisory in nature? I commend the Minister to think about our Dutch colleagues, who have been so close to us over so many years. I have one final point. I hope that resistance will be maintained to the inclusion of any reference to the Christian religion in the proposed changes. That is not required and would be unacceptable. We move into the period of a new Prime Minister in a few weeks’ time in terms of Prime Minister Brown. All I can say is that the predictable is always unpredictable. The future Prime Minister is sometimes is cast as a Euro-sceptic; perhaps he will surprise us all. I hope so.