European Union (Amendment) Bill

I want to ask some worm’s-eye questions. If this is going to happen, we are told that the EU missions will issue visas. Are they going to be issuing British visas? How are they going to be promoting, for instance, our trade interests, our defence interests and things like the British Council? You can be sure that if the Treasury sees any chance of closing our missions—on the grounds that there are these splendid new missions—it will. To some extent there will be an argument for it doing so. But foreign relations are bilateral relations between two countries. Of course we need what we are also being offered, but we do not need it instead of our existing, and very important, bilateral relations. There is a real danger in this regard. For instance, there are already around 7,000 EU people in special delegations around the world, and there will be a lot more. This will probably cost a lot of money. In a mission, are a Bulgarian, a German and a Finn really going to think, if there is a major trade opportunity, ““We must rush and tell the British””? Are they going to be able to look after our defence interests? Are they going to be able to look after our cultural interests? It would not be reasonable to expect them to do so. I have considerable anxiety about the muddle that will result from having a situation where everybody is milling about, but nobody really knows who is responsible. I find it very difficult to imagine that we could issue British passports—or visas for that matter—in that way. We are told at some stage—I cannot remember where—that the EU mission will be responsible for looking after our people if there is an emergency. I am sure that they would wish to do so, but there will be a lot of other citizens from other EU countries whom they will have to look after. They will not have the Navy or Army to do it. I can assure you—as somebody who has been responsible for getting people out of difficult countries—you have to have contacts with the police; you have to have contacts with the rebels or the putative rebels. I am not at all sure that an interesting, intelligent EU mission, without any real rooted relationships of that kind, would be able to do what a mission needs to do. I cannot help feeling that ordinary English people will get a bit worried if they feel that they may turn up in a country where there is no British representation. Unfortunately, it would apparently make a lot of sense for us to close our missions and use the EU, but it would not in the end make a lot of sense: it would be a very dangerous thing to do. I cannot help feeling that the ordinary man in the street needs to understand that. That is why I feel deep concern about the prospective EU foreign service, although I am sure that its intentions are excellent. However, it is not the same as having a mission of our own that has long-standing relationships with the countries. I shall give a final example. Let us suppose that in Argentina we have an EU mission and we decide that we do not need a British mission—we may even lead on that—and that the EU as a whole decides that the right thing would be for the Falklands again to become the Malvinas. What are we going to do about that? It will be a very difficult situation. I therefore believe that we must think about the practical consequences of what are otherwise admirable ideas.