European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I hope that noble Lords will recognise that I am seeking a consensus on this issue. I do not want to be confrontational. If I am not achieving a consensus, perhaps it is because of my inability to advocate sufficiently well the point of view I am trying to express. That point of view hinges on the idea that if the Government were persuaded to surrender all or part—we will accept the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, that it was only part of the rebate—they did so on the understanding that there would be reform of the common agricultural policy. This amendment seeks to monitor the status of that reform. It is a reasonable point and one on which noble Lords around the House, I believe, will agree. I suspect that there is not much division on this issue and that most noble Lords accept the premise on which we are seeking to reform the CAP, as indeed the report of the committee chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Sewel, makes very clear. I doubt whether there is anything other than complete agreement in this House that the common agricultural policy is over-centralised, over-bureaucratic and, above all, over-regulated. It is almost universally recognised that it is inflexible and wasteful of resources. Indeed, I doubt whether we will hear a single voice saying that the CAP is spending too little or is underregulated. Against that background, Members of the House and the Government have to acknowledge that the enemies of reform do not lie in this place, they lie in the users of the weapon of national self-interest who have become entrenched by the years of horse-trading and compromise that have characterised the way in which the policy has developed. Hence the reason for this amendment. All the great reforms in our history have been brought about by the power of Parliament. It is the people speaking through Parliament who give Government the authority to implement change. All through the Climate Change Bill Members on every Bench, Government and Opposition, recognised that. The Government acknowledged throughout the Bill both the need for regular reporting to Parliament and for harnessing Parliament’s authority to maintain the momentum for change. If the Government are serious about CAP reform; if they wish to ensure that both the CAP and the common fisheries policy function to harness the energy of farmers, growers and fishermen to satisfy the needs of the people of Europe for good quality food at reasonable prices; and if they see that the changing conditions being reflected in commodity prices in the global economy require policies that can adapt to them, they will recognise that the power of Parliament is an ally in this matter. That is why I present this amendment in the belief that whatever our views on Europe or on the detail of reform, we can all unite to ensure our role as parliamentarians and the future role of this House. I beg to move.