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European Affairs

With 27 nations of all sizes, even the smallest nations have a seat at the table where all the big decisions are made about Europe. That is a wonderful fact. The size and economic strength of each country does not matter—every one has representation and a voice in Europe. Each domestic nation is represented in the European Union. The European Union has approximately 500 million inhabitants. It is by far the world's largest economic trading area. The United States has a population of 300 million people. We are vastly bigger than even the United States and, to my mind, we are a far more civilised continent. One of the important conditions of EU membership is not having the death penalty. Any EU member state that adopts the death penalty is automatically excluded from the EU. That fact alone makes us a far more civilised union than others in the world, and I am glad to be part of it. All citizens of the EU know that they can work and travel throughout the continent. We take that for granted now, but only by visiting a country where those freedoms are not taken for granted and movement is restricted can we genuinely understand what it means. As EU members and individuals who live in the EU, we are free to travel anywhere. Too often, we take that for granted. Freedom to travel is a basic human right, which we have because of Europe. As citizens of Europe, we are free to work throughout the continent. Not only that, but because of the European working time directive and social chapter—again I hope that the hon. Member for Stone will not intervene—all European workers get at least four weeks' paid holiday a year. In the US, most people get only a fortnight's holiday every year. One of the best things about our membership of the European Union is our adoption of a more European way of living. Today, we have a better appreciation of balancing work with family and social life. I believe that that is a European way of doing things, which we have adopted wholesale. Hon. Members of all parties are beginning to recognise the importance of early intervention and improving people's life chances by giving more help to families that are struggling. I have watched with delight the Tory party's moves on that. Recognising the family as a unit and appreciating that we need to help whole families, not devise policies to punish individuals, is a much more European way of behaving. We are considering how families can spend more time together, and society is consequently far better. We have far better maternity leave today than we had in this country previously and for the first time we have paternity leave, thus appreciating the important role that fathers play in family life, especially when children are first born. Again, those policies have come from Europe and they are wonderful. We also have new rights to request flexible working, and even more important, part-time workers now enjoy the same rights as full-timers. That does not discriminate against people who work full time. The issue has always been about discriminating against women—far more women work part time. I therefore welcome the rights for part-time workers. Only by existing as a bloc of states—a union—could we hope to compete against America. It is not a matter of choosing whether we look to Europe or to America, but of recognising that America is a massive superpower and that we stand a much better chance of competing with America as a bloc of united states than we do as individual countries. The EU gives us far greater economic strength. The EU also gives us greater strength in combining a massive pool of skills. It has been fantastic to witness the sort of skills that people who have come to work in the UK have brought with them. We also go to European countries and take our skills, knowledge, language and way of doing things. That has made us stronger. Having a united voice on foreign policy, and many of the matters that have been mentioned today, with Britain at the heart of Europe, contributing to European foreign policy, is exciting. We are taking massive strides. The aspects that the UK has identified as the most important elements of foreign policy are all on an EU-wide agenda. That is the result of Britain being at the heart of the EU—