European Communities (Finance) Bill

We could discuss for ever individual figures and what goes where at any particular time. However, we clearly benefit enormously from being in the EU. We have lost many markets that we had previously. For example, we are not in the same position as we were in the Commonwealth, and we rely much more on our EU partners. There has been an anti-French aspect to our debate. Sarkozy is possibly being over-ambitious in his goals for when France has the presidency of the EU. We should not fall into that trap. The power vested in the presidency is not sufficiently significant to push things in the French direction in the way that has perhaps been suggested. It is ironic that Sarkozy has ambitious ideas about defence given that the Assemblée Nationale turned down the idea of a European army in the 1950s. He may therefore be overstepping the mark, and we, too, do so if we suggest that his influence will be quite so great when France takes on the presidency. Clearly, the issue of enlargement is directly linked to that of budget. Adjustments will have to be made. One cannot simply move from six to 27 states and expect nothing ever to change. Sometimes, we, as one of the richer nations, will have to shoulder part of the burden. We need to be careful to ensure that the debate does not become anti-enlargement or focus negatively on specific countries. Turkey has been mentioned a number of times as a country that is not suitable for EU membership, but for quite the wrong reasons. There are huge concerns, which I share, about Turkey's human rights record, treatment of people in custody, attitude to minority groups, treatment of groups such as the Kurds and policy towards Cyprus. The argument that is often repeated, however, is that if Turkey joins the EU, we will be swamped by people from Turkey seeking economic benefit here. The economic and religious issues seem to drive a lot of the prejudice against Turkey, but neither are relevant. In 10 or 15 years' time, when Turkey joins the European Union, it will be better off than countries such as Bulgaria and Romania. I accept that we have differences, but we must go along with the EU and vote the measure through.