---

European Communities (Finance) Bill

It was not my original intention to speak, at least in any substantial way, in the debate on clause 1 stand part. The Opposition are placed in some difficulty by the structure of the Bill. It has only one substantive clause, which contains only four substantive words. They are ““and 7th June 2007””. I took the view, for better or for worse, that seeking to amend clause 1 was tantamount to voting against the Bill on Third Reading. Indeed, that is what we shall do, if our attempt to amend the Bill through the insertion of new clause 1, which I hope we will have an opportunity to debate later, is unsuccessful. However, as the Chief Secretary has set out his argument at some length, it is necessary for me to speak briefly to answer some of the points that he raised, in the hope that I will be able to make my substantive contribution to the debate about the Bill in the debate on new clause 1, which I hope we will come to in due course. The Chief Secretary must recognise that the original position with which his Government went into the negotiations was that the rebate was fully justified and non-negotiable. Both on Second Reading and again this afternoon, he sought to rewrite history to imply that it was always recognised and understood that part of the deal for enlargement would be that the UK had to give away part of its rebate. However, that is simply not the case. The main enlargement of the European Union was agreed in April 2003 and implemented in January 2004; Bulgaria and Romania signed the treaties of accession in April 2005. By summer 2005, when the then Prime Minister told us that the rebate was not negotiable, ““period”” and the current Prime Minister told us that the rebate was fully justified and non-negotiable, enlargement was a fait accompli. The Chief Secretary's Government never envisaged giving away part of the rebate as part of the negotiation for enlargement—or does the Chief Secretary want to tell us that both the former and the present Prime Minister wantonly misled the House when they made those remarks? A former occupant of the Chief Secretary's office told the House of Commons:"““we will benefit from abatement on any new expenditure incurred as a consequence of both enlargement and the ceilings in the existing EU 15...the United Kingdom will benefit very considerably from the application of the abatement to any new expenditure on enlargement.””—[Official Report, 3 July 2001; Vol. 371, c. 145.]" In 2005, it was never the Government's position that the rebate had to be surrendered or even negotiated as the price of enlargement. To say so is simply wrong. The Government supported EU enlargement; after it was secured, they went in to negotiate the ““own resources”” decision on the basis that the rebate was not up for grabs.