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European Council

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who is very wise on this subject. He said:"““some of the Eurosceptics will have demanded a referendum just about the date on the top of the piece of paper, but they are flogging away, I think, at a dead horse.””" Not that that discombobulated him for a moment. The Single European Act and Maastricht involved far more QMV transfers than anything that we have agreed. As for the external action service of the EU, because it comes under one person—it is sensible to merge both posts—the Commission offices will break down the barriers with the Council offices, so that they can all be in the same place. Are we to have a referendum on an open-plan office? It is absurd. The question that I have for the right hon. Gentleman is this. If this is so important, if this is the one thing that requires a referendum, sucking away the country’s political energy for months, why did he not go to the meeting on Thursday morning of the European People’s party to which he was invited by the German Chancellor? What did he say when he was asked to go to the meeting? He said that he was too busy to attend. So this is a fundamental question requiring a referendum, yet he cannot even turn up to the meeting. Incidentally, if the right hon. Gentleman thinks that he will get some salvation from the new grouping that his party is joining, which includes the Czech Prime Minister, let me tell him what his friend the Czech Prime Minister has said about the deal. He said:"““it was very difficult but in the end very successful. The result is considerably better than the European Constitution””," and that he did not think that a referendum should be held. The truth of the matter is that the Conservative party has not got a serious policy on Europe. This is no doubt the reason why the right hon. Gentleman did not raise the matter at Prime Minister’s questions last week or attend the European People’s party meeting and, to be fair to him, I think that he is going through the motions a bit today. If the Conservative party wants to be a serious party of government, it should have a serious policy on Europe. The fact that it does not have one means that it is not a serious party of government.