---

European Union (Amendment) Bill

I support the amendment so ably moved by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor. He is suffering from a slight attack of hopefulness after dinner because, no matter which colour they are, all British Governments have suffered from delusions over the common agricultural policy and its reform. All British Governments have argued for reform but, I am afraid, have never got anywhere. The CAP still consumes some 45 per cent of the total EU budget, to which we contribute disproportionately. Our last shot at reform was during the EU presidency when the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, agreed to give up quite a lot of our hard won rebate in return for reform of the CAP. Of course the reform just turned into a ““health check””. Our partners in Europe must have had their fingers crossed. The health check consists at the moment of: ““Let us see the colour of British taxpayers’ money. Yes, that is okay; they are still paying a whole lot of money. What about French agriculture? Open wide. Yes, that is all in perfect working order as well. Health check complete””. We are still paying and the French agriculture sector is still receiving. The result is that British taxpayers are still shelling out enormous amounts of money, still shovelling billions a year into the EU budget that is so riddled with fraud and irregularities that its accounts have not been signed off by its own auditors for 13 years. That looks like another classical government winner on the lines of Gordon Brown’s sale of gold at the lowest point in the market for 100 years. The French are a little bit more rational about this sort of thing—or self-interested, depending on your point of view. The French Minister Michel Barnier is on record as opposing any reform to the CAP. Using food security as an excuse for more protectionism, he has gone as far as suggesting—I think I saw this in the Financial Times—that the CAP should be taken out of the Doha round of the WTO talks. He is on record as saying that the CAP is a good model and that the CAP should return to its food production subsidies. Do the Government agree with Mr Barnier or do they think that the N in his name should be replaced with an M and agree that it is absolutely barking mad to spend 45 per cent of the EU budget on the 5 per cent of the population that produces 3 per cent of the EU output? I should like some idea of whether the Government think it is still a very good idea to spend this sort of money. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, asked where the Government are on all this. I have news for him—the debate is going on without us. A report in the Times on 26 April noted that Germany is backing French proposals to maintain direct agricultural subsidies after 2013, which is when Britain and some other more market-minded EU member states want total reform of the CAP. The German Minister of Agriculture, Herr Seehofer, said: "““Food security is a demand of our population””." He did not see how this could be done, "““by taking away subsidies from European farmers””." Absolutely no surprise, then, that Germany has joined France in opposing the concessions on farm subsidies that Mr Peter Mandelson, our very own Trade Commissioner, is proposing to make at the Doha round. That is now being opposed by the French and German Governments. I do not know whether the British Government are in a strong position to argue that one through and get their way. The French press agency, AFP, tells us that Berlin and Paris are ready to join forces in opposing British attempts to reform the CAP. This is welcomed by a spokesman for the European Commission, who said: "““When the French and the Germans talk on European issues and European interests, it is always good for Europe””." Note that they did not say that it is always good for Britain. For those self-deluding British politicians who for years have been telling us that Europe is going our way, this must be something of a wake-up call. This is state intervention and state protectionism all rolled into one—these so-called reforms of the CAP which are being opposed by France and Germany, who have always called the shots. But this is the CAP, invented as a conduit for pouring money into French agriculture. It is entirely predictable that the Franco-German motor is exploiting a perceived food shortage to continue to advance an agenda which has existed for decades and which shows no signs of running out of energy or of money, even if it is our money. These are the CAP chickens coming home to roost at last. Successive Governments have handed over our agricultural, farming and food policies to the European Union. We are now at the mercy of the Commission, the European Parliament—if this treaty goes through—and the Council of Ministers. I speak now not as a swivel-eyed Europhobe but as an advocate for the Government’s position, as I understand it from today’s Financial Times, which says that the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, wants to scrap EU external tariffs, which inflate prices for commodities such as beef and dairy products, and end all direct payments to farmers. The FT quotes him as saying: "““It is unacceptable that, at a time of significant food price inflation, the EU continues to apply very high import tariffs to many agricultural commodities””." Mr Darling is right in saying that, but it does not end there. He goes on to say that the CAP costs consumers in Europe billions of pounds a year in higher food bills while hurting farmers in the developing world. The German Agriculture Minister has dismissed that as ““complete rubbish””. Do the Government agree with Mr Darling, the Chancellor, or with the German Agriculture Minister that the reforms of the CAP that Mr Darling is proposing are complete rubbish? The amendment is sensible. It is crazy that the Government can support the idea of giving the European Parliament, which is currently mired in sleaze—brilliantly exposed by the Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, and I am still waiting for a tribute from the Liberal Democrat Front Benches to his energy and bravery in exposing that corruption—any role at all in a co-decision on the CAP. It has historically been against reform, as the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, said, and has blocked it, so to allow this to go through would be completely crazy. This is a classic argument for getting out of the mess of the EU. We are never going to get anywhere on agricultural reform while we remain bound to the ruinous, discredited policies of the CAP. I warmly support the amendment put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor.