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European Council: June 2006

My Lords, when such an amiable fellow as the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, delivers such a negative and sour response to a European Council, surely it is time for the Government to realise that the Conservatives, for the time being at least, are a lost cause with regard to Europe. They long to wound, they fear to strike—and we shall continue to get statements, such as this one from their official spokesman, which at no time explain how an organisation that has expanded from six to 25 members and with ambitions to expand to 27 should conduct itself or have a rule book. Have the Government considered publishing a Green Paper, taking from the constitution the areas that they think could be brought forward? Let us have a debate about that, because otherwise we shall have either the Government reacting to what is going on in Germany or elsewhere across the channel or the Conservatives continuing to bring forward these hobgoblins to scare us about what is going on. We have to realise that the global context in which Europe exists is changing rapidly. We will have a world of Chinese, Indian and, perhaps, Brazilian economic super-powers. The idea that we can rest comfortably on a Conservative Party ““stop the world, we want to get off”” approach is plainly ludicrous. Let us take the debate to them on the grounds of giving Europe a rule book that will work. On the rest of the communiqué, we welcome the businesslike approach, the recognition of subsidiarity and the commitment to reducing burdens on business. We were a little bemused, as was the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, by news stories headed ““UK U-turns on open meetings””. How we ever got ourselves into that position, I do not know. It would be reassuring to know that the Government are committed, as these Benches are, to far greater transparency in the way Europe does business. We believe—as we thought the Government believed—that that would be one way of preventing the Conservatives and their allies in the media misleading the British people about the reality of doing business in Europe. Let us get the realities about the approach to immigration into the open. If we are to deal with immigration we need specific co-operation in Europe and British activity in areas such as north Africa. Of course, we have naval capacity in Gibraltar at that end of the Mediterranean. Is it proposed that Britain should get physically involved in control activities? Are we talking directly to the north African Governments concerned about this problem? The Council agreed to declarations on the western Balkans, Iran, Iraq, the Middle East peace process, Africa, Lebanon and Timor-Leste. Does anybody on the Official Opposition Benches believe that Britain would have any impact on any of these global problems without the strength and authority we get from membership of the EU? If we want to play a part in the 21st century, we will have to do so with our natural allies in a European Union that works. That is why we have also supported enlargement. Would the Minister not agree that the British people need reminding again and again of Europe’s most amazing transformation into a Europe committed to democracy and the process of law? This has been undertaken—from Spain, Portugal and Greece onwards—by a European Union which has demonstrated to the world that it is possible to settle even the most intractable differences by political process. That is what we should all encourage.