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Treaty of Lisbon (No. 2)

This afternoon's debate has been frustrating in many ways, as has been made clear in various contributions. In part, that is the result of its structure: we have spent four and a half hours talking about general energy policy, and will have only one and a half hours to discuss the specific amendments that have been tabled. In other words, the debate has been too general and too little concerned with scrutinising the detail of the treaty. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Worcestershire (Peter Luff), the Chairman of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee, said that energy debates are like buses—nothing comes along for ages, then there are three in three weeks. A couple of weeks ago, the Secretary of State surprised us by telling us that he used to be a bus driver. His speech today might be compared to how buses behave: first there was no speech at all, and then two came along at once. In fact, he did rather better without the text than with it. There was a real sense that his heart was not in his speech, and it was certainly clear that it was lacking in content. He could have covered much more ground than he did. At the outset, I shall set out those areas where we agree with European energy policy. Various significant aspects of energy policy demand international co-operation—tackling carbon emissions, for example, or agreeing the right level for a carbon tax and moving towards liberalised markets—but we believe, as my hon. Friend said, that the Government and the EU already have enough powers to take action in those areas. Some interesting contributions were made to the debate. I was pleased that the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Leicester, West (Ms Hewitt), spoke from the Back Benches. She rightly talked about the energy gap, but that gap would be smaller now if she had taken more action and indulged in less consultation when she was in charge of the Department. We had three White Papers and two energy reviews when we should have been seeing action. The consequence is that there is panic building of gas storage facilities, and the Government are having to review the targets that they set. The original goal of 10 per cent. of energy coming from renewables by 2010 has been cut to 8 per cent., and the target of 20 per cent. by 2020 has also been reduced, perhaps to as little as 12 per cent. The right hon. Lady also said that we do not have too much Europe, but too little. For me, that was the quote of the debate, and perhaps it could be the slogan for the referendum campaign, if we ever get one. It is a remark that goes to the heart of the matter, so it is no wonder that she is not keen on having a referendum. The right hon. Lady also said that we need more pipelines, storage facilities and LNG, and she is right. However, she also claimed that the liberalisation provided by the treaty would be needed if we are to get them, and in that she is fundamentally wrong. This country has perhaps a dozen days of gas storage, whereas illiberal countries such as France, Germany and Italy have 95, 80 and 80 days, respectively. In fact, it is the countries with illiberal energy policies that have the highest proportions of gas storage facilities. The right hon. Lady made her most irresponsible comments when she tried to promote the treaty by spreading scare stories. Of course we must be wary of massively powerful, state-backed corporations, but it is simply not correct to say, as she did, that Russia will pick off EU countries one at a time. That is not going to happen.