Treaty of Lisbon (No. 2)

The hon. Gentleman is right, but I am afraid that there is a paradox—a real contradiction—at the heart of the position taken by those on the Conservative Front Bench, and by so many of his right hon. and hon. Friends. The ends that they want to secure, including the liberalisation of Europe's energy markets, require a stronger Commission, as well as, in many cases, an increase in qualified majority voting within the Council of Ministers—but that is precisely what they object to. That paradox gives rise to the rhetoric that we heard, especially yesterday, about those people in Brussels imposing things on us, as if Europe were an occupying power rather than a club of which we are a leading member. The changes in the world of energy that we highlighted in the energy White Paper five years ago are taking place even faster than we anticipated—most notably, of course, the extraordinary growth in China, India and other emerging economies. It is not only the United Kingdom that is ceasing to be self-sufficient in energy supplies. The European Union as a whole, the United States, China itself, Japan and soon India—in other words, all the world's major economic centres—are, or shortly will be, net importers of energy. I can develop that argument further: 50 per cent. of the world's daily supplies of oil are internationally traded. In just 10 years' time, 70 per cent. of the globe's oil requirements will be internationally traded. Of that 70 per cent., three quarters will come from west Africa, Russia and the middle east. The position with gas is similar. There are many, many more importers and fewer exporters, and many—perhaps most—of those exporters are hardly what one would call stable democracies. In this world of intensifying competition—a world eloquently described by my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough as this interdependent world—the challenges that we face in Britain are challenges that we face in common with our fellow members of the European Union. They are, notably, challenges involving how we secure our energy supplies and how we deal with and reduce CO2 emissions. Equally, much of the action that we need to take in response to those challenges, we can take only in common with our fellow members of the European Union. The problem—this is the point made by the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Mr. Taylor)—is not that we have too much Europe, but that we have too little. [Interruption.] Let me develop the point. There is agreement on both sides of the House, even from the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alan Duncan), that Europe's energy market is not a proper market; it is certainly not a single market—I think that I am quoting him pretty accurately on that. Instead, it is a highly fragmented market physically, but also economically and politically. The hon. Member for Northavon said that an essential part of our strategy across Europe to secure energy supplies in future lies in having far more interconnections. It is essential in this world of intense and intensifying competition for energy that we have as many providers of energy as possible, and that we have as many pipelines, sources and supply lines as possible. That means more interconnections and more terminals—more storage capacity—for liquefied natural gas. That in turn requires a pretty substantial amount of private sector investment, and that of course requires far more effective liberalisation of Europe's energy markets. The hon. Member for Rutland and Melton himself made the point that Europe's energy market is economically fragmented. He welcomed, as I hope we all do, the Commission's proposals to liberalise the market, in particular to unbundle distribution and production of energy.