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European Affairs

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart), who made a telling point about the damaging growth of spurious bureaucracy in the EU. Her key point, however, was that people do not have a sense of ownership of EU institutions. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) said, almost every aspect of our national life is subject to the influence of the EU, but people have no sense of control. As a result, there is a disconnection from the process. I agree with the Foreign Secretary that there should be an open door to new entrants. I accept, too, that for some countries on the borders of the EU, the possibility of membership is helpful in achieving reforms. I wish to explore that, but before I do so, it was Willy Brandt who said that the trouble with politicians was that they went into politics to resolve a given set of problems. Once they had done so, however, they failed to move on. The EU is a classic example, as the challenge that it faces is not one of constitutional centralisation, which is quite irrelevant to its needs, but one of demography and lack of competitiveness. Astonishingly, UK corporation tax, which used to be lower than the EU average, is now higher. As a percentage of world trade, the European single market is diminishing as a result of globalisation and other challenges. We have become more insular and obsessed with policies and directives that do not address those challenges for the long-term benefit of the people of this country and of other Europeans. I echo the hon. Lady’s point. Notwithstanding all the ambitions for a common foreign and defence policy, what we have seen in Afghanistan is truly shocking. Although that is nominally a NATO exercise, our European partners have been unwilling to play their part in dealing with the terrible situation in Afghanistan, which is universally regarded as a huge challenge for all of us. There seems to be an inverse relationship, with those who plead more for political integration and centralisation being unwilling to face their domestic electorates and argue for the defence spending to make that credible and viable, and those who are conceited enough to believe that the European Union should be a force in the world being unwilling to argue with their domestic electorates for adequate defence spending. That makes a mockery of the EU’s demand to be listened to. Like other hon. Members, I shall speak about the issue of Turkey. We sometimes forget that the accession process has been going on for a long time. Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963. The formal application to join the European Community was made in 1987. Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate for membership in December 1999 at the Helsinki summit of the European Council. The negotiations for Turkey’s entry started only in October 2005. With the current problems, the issue will take at least a decade to resolve. We should recognise the extraordinarily brave part that that country played during the cold war, right on the border of the old Soviet Union. We should respect the fact that Turkey played a significant part in our defence and our freedoms. Its geographic location enables it to play a hugely important part not only culturally, but militarily, between Europe and the middle east. I am pleased to note that after some alarming messages from the German Chancellor about her view of the current crisis in Turkey’s negotiations, she has accepted that a dialogue with Turkey must continue, however difficult that is. She has accepted the view of the European Commission, which is probably far too tough. At least she is not going further, as she previously seemed to be indicating. The attitude in Germany and France is not driven by an important geopolitical consideration of the future of Turkey and its relationship with the EU. It is driven by domestic attitudes and politics, which in my view is wrong. The EU Commission has frozen eight out of the 35 chapters for negotiation. Those are the free movement of services, the right of establishment and freedom to provide services, agriculture and rural development, financial services, fisheries, transport, customs union and external relations. There are huge demands on Turkey and all derive from the difficulty of creating an adequate customs protocol. As several hon. Members have noted, one of the barriers to negotiations is the key Turkish demand that the isolation of Turkish north Cyprus be lifted. On a strict legal interpretation, Turkey is in the wrong and should admit Greek Cypriot ships to its ports. However, there are powerful domestic reasons why that is not happening and the issue remains a flashpoint. I am proud of the fact that in the House there is almost universal recognition of the importance of Turkey’s membership of the EU ultimately. I agree with the Prime Minister, who said in Latvia recently that it would be a ““serious mistake”” to send a negative signal to Turkey over its EU membership. There are presidential elections in Turkey at the beginning of next year and parliamentary elections at the end of the year. In 2008 there are European elections in a number of countries, notably Germany. So there is a window, but not a large one, for us to consider Turkey’s future. Because of all the to-ing and fro-ing over the future of Turkey’s accession, there is waning support for it in Turkey itself. Some polls suggest that a majority would wish to break off accession talks altogether, and there is certainly a considerable decline in the number of those who favour joining the EU at all. At this critical juncture, when there are so many huge problems in the middle east which wash up on to these shores, Turkey has a unique role to play. It has excellent relationships with Israel and with Arab countries. It has committed its troops to Lebanon. There is a Jordanian-Turkish initiative known as the neighbourhood forum which could at least be the basis for countries in the region coming together to consider the terrible problems that are besetting it. I hope that a clear message goes out from this House and from this Government that for all Turkey’s difficulties we need to support its accession and to encourage it to overcome those difficulties in a proper, constructive dialogue with the European Commission.