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European Commission

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, and having called frequently for such European debates, I could do little else but speak. I want to speak also because it is important that the left critical view of the European Union should be heard. It is the view of a substantial body of people outside Parliament and in the Labour movement in particular. The TUC, for example, has opposed the Lisbon treaty and supported a referendum on it. There are many other active members of our party and movement who feel strongly that the European Union is not the democratic socialist ideal that we should want it to become if it continues. We have recently had the problem of a European Court of Justice ruling in favour of employers against employees, which seemed to go against the fundamental right to strike, which the European Union has enshrined. Many of us are worried that that augurs a possible change of direction, whereby more and more power will be ceded to employers, with a progressive reduction in the influence and power of working people and their organisations.