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European Council: 15–16 December 2005

Noble Lords should be patient; they will enjoy this. We want to see Europe succeed, but it cannot do so unless we dismantle protectionist barriers against poor countries and make the excesses of the CAP history. I just said that, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer said it first and I agree with him. How bitter he must be that the CAP is secure until 2013 while a £7.2 billion black hole has been blasted in his Budget plans. This was the British people’s money. Now it is to be given away. Perhaps the noble Baroness can say how it will be paid for—by increasing tax, cuts in public spending, borrowing, or what? The Statement said that Spain will pay more, but can the noble Baroness confirm that under this deal Spain will remain a net beneficiary from the EU until at least 2013? And why did the UK propose extra funding for the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla when Spain continues to harass Gibraltar? The Prime Minister made much of enlargement, and he is right to do so. We on this side have always been a passionate supporter of EU enlargement. We want to see Turkey in. We welcome the decision to open discussions with Macedonia, and we accept some extra resource for enlargement. But that has to be done fairly—not just by surrendering a fifth of our rebate at a cost to UK taxpayers but also by reducing the bloated and unjustifiable farm subsidies that will remain. The countries of Eastern Europe are our natural allies if ever real EU reform is to come. Not so long ago, President Chirac was lecturing them to keep silent and to do what France and Germany told them. What a dismal day, then, for UK diplomacy to negotiate in such a ham-fisted way that the Foreign Minister of Poland was driven to sign with France in the Financial Times a joint denunciation of Britain’s attitude to Eastern Europe. I have to ask the noble Baroness yet again why in this summit under the UK presidency no action was agreed against the Government of Robert Mugabe? Was there any censure of his recent visit to Rome or of the violence and sham of Zimbabwe’s rigged elections? I support the forthright condemnation of the deplorable comments by the President of Iran calling for the eradication of Israel. But have not EU leaders been too complacent for far too long about Iran and its nuclear ambitions? The summit condemned use of the death penalty in Iraq. Can the noble Baroness say whether the Prime Minister will intervene to prevent the execution of Saddam Hussein if he is convicted of genocide? Taken all in all, the UK presidency has been a bitter delusion. This dismal summit showed yet again the disjunction between the Prime Minister’s bold words and feeble achievements: the desperate need for urgent CAP reform remains unmet; the cry of the third world for the opening of EU markets unheard; the call from Europe’s unemployed and struggling businesses for a bonfire of regulations and directives unheeded; the crisis of fraud in the EU budget untackled; and the confident claims of moving Europe in a new direction has proved to be so much empty spin. The UK presidency has come and gone—leaving nothing behind.