Treaty of Lisbon (No. 4)

I remind the right hon. Gentleman that his party was committed to demonstrating the legitimacy of the Lisbon treaty—the constitutional treaty—by putting it to a referendum of the British people. He has resiled from that commitment, and I believe that the Government will pay a high price for doing so when the electors eventually get their opportunity to vote. The fact is that protectionism is alive and well across the EU. Whether we are talking about French yoghurt, Spanish electricity, Austrian steel or Italian banks, EU Governments are doing their utmost to protect their prized domestic industries from the threat of foreign competitors, predators and Anglo-Saxon liberalisers, including the right hon. Gentleman. It was Charlie McCreevy who said what we all know:"““in reality, many countries give lip-service to open and free competition””." Never has the tension between the need for free and undistorted competition in markets and the EU's social, cultural and political aspirations been clearer. Never was there a greater need for a clear recognition that without the prosperity that a single, open and competitive market can deliver, the other aspirations will remain just that. Never was the need for the concept of competitive markets to be at the heart of the European Union greater than it is now, when it is being relegated to the margins. What the EU needs right now is a strengthening, not a weakening, of its focus on competition at the heart of everything it does.