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European Communities (Finance) Bill

The countries that have done best economically are outside the European Union, especially smaller countries such as Switzerland and Iceland. They do not have to bear the EU's burdens, so they have had much faster growth than us. EU growth has been laggard. What benefits do we get? We certainly cannot claim the common fisheries policy as a benefit. No one would defend that. Nobody seems to claim the CAP as a benefit, apart perhaps from the hon. Member for Dundee, East who said it brought stability, but it brings stability at enormous cost and distorts our market. Nobody would say that the other common policy—foreign and defence policy—has achieved much. How successful was it in Yugoslavia? It was largely responsible for breaking up Yugoslavia. The EU was pushed into intervention in Kosovo by President Clinton. Look how united and solid the EU was on Iraq, where it fell into squabbling camps. In Afghanistan, we are being left to bear the brunt of the fighting and death while German troops have to clock off for tea at 5. Again the burdens fall on us. As my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North said, there have been two surveys of the costs and benefits. The Swiss drew up an honest balance sheet for their Department of Foreign Affairs. It indicated that the burdens of Europe would take 1 per cent. from their annual growth. A French think-tank—pro-Government—obviously influenced Sarkozy, who wants the European Bank to lower the exchange rate and interest rates to make the euro more competitive. The French survey showed that economic and monetary union has damaged growth and turned Europe into the high-unemployment, low-growth black spot of the advanced world. There have been glimmerings of growth in Germany—I am sure my new hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford would intervene at this point—but the EU is growing far slower than any other part of the world.