European Communities (Finance) Bill

The Conservatives will be joining us in opposing the Bill's Second Reading today. We oppose the Bill not because we object to the principle of what could have been achieved, but because it is being expressed as such a wonderful achievement by the Government. They have not admitted to the failures involved in their negotiation of the deal in December 2005. People's concerns revolve around what things cost, and whether they think that they are getting value for money. The Bill deals with the overall cost, and not the effectiveness of the spending. I wonder whether it would be useful to draw those two matters together. Other Members have mentioned the problems with the European Union audit process. When the draft documents were debated earlier last year, the Government made it clear that it was important to have tougher audit constraints in place. We support them in their intent—[Interruption.]