European Union (Amendment) Bill

I find it quite extraordinary listening to the noble Lord talk about Alice in Wonderland. The two amendments tabled by my noble friends Lord Howell and Lord Blackwell, which I support, are eminently sensible. They do not preclude co-operation within the European Community on energy matters; they ensure that we are able to determine issues independently where our national interest is at stake. My noble friend’s Amendment No. 70 simply removes the new energy article which gives the EU more powers, subject to QMV. My noble friend Lord Blackwell’s amendment simply highlights the significance of the move to QMV on aspects of energy policy. I do not, for the life of me, understand why the noble Lord, Lord Lea, should be concerned about that. I much prefer the view put by his noble friend Lord Rowlands, who warned us of the importance of security of supply and of Governments being able to protect their national interest. If energy is unable to be supplied, that has a fundamental and damaging effect on our quality of life and economy. Many wars and conflicts have been fought on those very issues. If the noble Lord wants to bring Alice in Wonderland into the debate, I give him one example. Not a fortnight ago I asked the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, in Question Time about the effects of the European Community’s requirement to have a proportion of biofuels included in petrol, which has resulted in the increase in the prices of food throughout the world, to which my noble friend referred. It has caused great damage—indeed, it has killed people because of starvation and their inability to afford those food prices. The noble Lord, Lord Rooker, said that the relationship between biofuels and those problems was at yet unproven and that the Government were looking at this matter and had it under review. I turned on the radio this morning, not a matter of weeks later, to hear the Chancellor telling us that he is this very day going to Brussels to argue that we should be released from the requirement to have a certain percentage of biofuels included in our petrol. The fact is that there is nothing that we can do about it, unless we get agreement—and it is very damaging to the world as a whole. That is one example of a European policy that has proved foolish, although no doubt it was well intentioned; its consequences have been severe, and we have great difficulty in reversing it. I shall give the noble Lord another example, for which perhaps the Government of whom I was a member bear some responsibility. Those people who are in favour of green taxes should look at what happened to the previous Conservative Government when they introduced VAT on fuel. It was extremely unpopular. If you read the columns of the national press, you can see lots of people pointing out that the heating allowances that they get from the state are less than the VAT that they have to pay on the fuel. A sensible policy might be to consider lifting that, but we do not have freedom to remove VAT once it has been imposed. The noble Lord is a little cavalier in suggesting that we should risk giving up our ability to determine our policies according to our national interests. He mentioned Russia, which we know is quite capable of using energy as a political tool. We have seen that already. We also know that there is a diversity of interests within the European Community and according to the position of the various member states and their dependence on a particular energy.