European Affairs

I beg to move,"That this House has considered the matter of European affairs." Having spent eight years analysing its innards and obsessing about its own rule book, Europe now needs to focus all her energies on the needs and concerns of her citizens. Next week's Council meetings will do precisely that, with key discussions on jobs and growth, on climate change, on European co-operation to tackle crime, on the enlargement of the Union and on external relations, especially with Iran. On the economy, I know some Members, particularly Conservative Members, would like to pretend otherwise, but no country in Europe has escaped the effects of the global economic downturn. Three things, I believe, have become apparent through this extraordinary period. First, every country in Europe has faced the same set of problems because no economy is a hermetically sealed unit. Italy's debt is now 115 per cent. of gross domestic product, while Greece's is 113.4 per cent. and Belgium's is 97.4 per cent. Unemployment across the EU is currently at 9.4 per cent.—its highest level since the recession began. In Latvia and Spain, it is at its highest at 20.9 and 19.3 per cent. respectively.