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Future EU Finances and Own Resources

I welcome an opportunity yet again to debate European Union finances. Before doing so, I want to comment on my right hon. Friend the Minister for Europe, who is not in his place at the moment, but whom I have already welcomed. I hope that he is going to prove to be more of a pragmatist than a zealot in these matters. We will probably never agree on European matters, at least publicly, but I hope that he will look at the European Union in a practical way and will not be blinded by the dream of a European federal state, which some people say that they are against although they are really in favour, while some of us are genuinely opposed to it. The budget remains a running sore in the EU. In December, we lost a serious opportunity to do something about it at a time when we had the leverage to stop a deal and get some fundamental change. It is nonsense to suggest that we are doing well on the common agricultural policy. I have been looking at the figures in the documents before us today. The table under ““Heading 2”” shows the billions that are spent on agriculture, direct aid and market support. Over the next seven years, that is going to reduce by just under 1 per cent. a year. That means that we will extinguish the CAP over the next 100 years, or slightly more. I suspect that even then the European Court of Auditors will still be failing to sign off the accounts, but I probably will not be there to see it. We are still in the mire as regards the European budget. My hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) said that this is nothing to do with the constitution. I am afraid that that is wrong. In fact, what happened in December arose because of the splendid decision and success of the French people in defeating the proposal for a constitution. That did not please President Chirac, who, to deflect attention from his own apparent failure, lashed out at the British rebate in the European budget. I modestly suggested in a previous debate that if he wants to question our rebate, let us throw the CAP into the melting pot. If there is no CAP, there is no need for a rebate. Interestingly, the Prime Minister took precisely that case to Europe and debated it with colleagues. One would have hoped that we would say, ““You want to change our rebate—fine, but only the basis of the abolition or very serious and fundamental reform of the CAP.”” That did not happen, we lost that opportunity, and now we are going to trundle on for 100 years, with perhaps a 1 per cent. cut a year. That is not acceptable, certainly not to the third world, which suffers terribly from the effects of heavy subsidies in the developed world, particularly in Europe. Agriculture policies should be repatriated in the first instance so that each country determines its own approach, because every country’s agriculture is different. We can have international agreements about reducing subsidies—that is fine—but in the end it should be down to the decisions of democratically elected member states’ Governments.