European Affairs

We are not rejecting them—[Interruption.] We are not; I shall answer the question directly. Some months ago—over a year ago, I think—we established working groups between our party and the German CDU-CSU that have looked in detail at issues such as the environment, maintaining European competitiveness, and combating terrorism. More recently, we have established a similar system of working groups with the French UMP. That does not sound like rejection to me. Let me turn to our new grouping in the European Parliament. One of the results of the European elections is that a reinvigorated Conservative delegation of MEPs is determined to put the case, which we believe is shared by a majority of the British people—and we did win the European elections—for a flexible, open and free-trading European Union. In order to do this, the Conservative delegation will, along with the ODS party in the Czech Republic and the Law and Justice party in Poland, form a new centre-right grouping to campaign for a new type of Europe. That work is ongoing, but we aim to announce the membership of the group well before the delegations are legally constituted on 14 July. Given that the Liberal spokesman attacked our policy on that, it is interesting to look at some of the Liberals' allies in the ALDE—Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe—grouping in the European Parliament. Is he, for instance, proud of the fact that his party was allied with the Swedish party, Feminist Initiative, whose policies include the abolition of marriage because it regards that as detrimental to women, and special additional taxation on men, simply because they are men? Is he proud of that? I should advise him to declare an interest before he answers the question. Is he not going to answer? In that case, I will press on. My next subject is the Government's lack of interest in Europe. They now seek to forget about the European elections, but they seemed to forget about Europe itself some time ago. One of the details to emerge from the Government's chaos last week is that the former Minister for Europe said:""I am not willing to attend Cabinet in a peripheral capacity any longer."" As my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks, reminded the House, the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) told Radio 4's "Woman's Hour" that she had not had a single conversation with the Prime Minister about European policy in her year as Europe Minister. We therefore have the truth of the Prime Minister's vision for Europe in his Cabinet. It is, in one word, peripheral. Despite the Government's appointing 11 Europe Ministers since 1997, including the previous Minister, who remarkably admitted that she had never even bothered to read the Lisbon treaty, we now have no Minister for Europe in the House of Commons—a Minister for Europe who also does not attend the Cabinet as of right. For a while, it even looked as though we were to have no Minister for Europe at all. Due to the shambolic nature of the Government's reshuffle, nobody had bothered to double-check whether Lady Kinnock was able to be a Member of the European Parliament and a Minister in this Parliament at the same time. Perhaps when the Under-Secretary winds up the debate, he will confirm whether Lady Kinnock is now formally a Minister of the Crown, and when she will formally take up her duties in the House of Lords. Parliament deserves a clear answer on that matter. So much for this Government's commitment to Europe. We now know from a Labour former Europe Minister that it has always been of peripheral interest to this Prime Minister, and indeed to his Cabinet.