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European Communities (Finance) Bill

I am mystified by what the Chief Secretary is saying. In previous enlargements, the EU admitted both rich countries, such as Finland and Sweden, and much poorer countries, such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, yet the arrangements for the rebate were not changed. The whole premise of his argument—that we have to change the rebate as a condition of enlargement is, if I may say so, absolute rubbish. His Government are committing—to quote the figure that the Library has given us—£7.4 billion over the planned period for absolutely nothing, other than to advertise their utter weakness. At the same time, they cannot pay the police properly.