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European Affairs

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. It was nice of him, in a personal sense, and appropriate—given his own involvement in the Council of Europe—to bring that insight to the House. It certainly coincides with the experiences that those of us who saw him in other ways had of the man himself. Today's debate, which was opened by the Foreign Secretary, immediately follows the mini-summit—if that is the right term—that began the week, with President Sarkozy, our own Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission, President Barroso. I note the level of reassurance that the Foreign Secretary sought to give the House regarding the absence of the German Chancellor. One hopes that his reassurances are correct, because it would be a disaster, at a time of international recession affecting all our individual countries as well as the European Union and the rest of the globe, if there were any dislocation in the approach being pursued by the British, the French and the European Commission, or if there were any significant difference in the approach being pursued by the German Chancellor and her grand coalition. We have to guard against that. I say that from a pro-European standpoint, given the experience of several weeks ago, when the initial, more collective European efforts were unveiled. That strategy lasted barely 48 hours after the conclusion of proceedings on the continent, and, at that point, a very different approach was unveiled in Germany. We have to guard against that. There is a second factor that we must guard against. I welcome the Prime Minister's pivotal role—or certainly the role that his spin doctors have given him—in co-ordinating European action, given the scale and severity of the financial crisis. It was useful and good that he hosted yesterday's summit, before attending the main leaders' summit at the end of the week. However, given this country's position outside the eurozone—I shall direct the bulk of my brief remarks tonight to that subject—the co-ordination of those policies will not be reliant on one-off, headline-grabbing summit gatherings. It will involve the ongoing working of eurozone Finance Ministers. The Prime Minister was not noted for his overwhelming public outbursts of Euro-enthusiasm during his time at No. 11 Downing street. However, given the desperately serious situation, I am encouraged that he is apparently so engaged at European level. The fact remains, however, that as long as we are not full members of the group of eurozone Finance Ministers, there will be something of the country club member status about the British role in such proceedings. That is inescapable, because that is what the Government have opted for. I am not arguing about that, because there is no need to. I had that argument with Tony Blair over successive Parliaments many years ago, and we are where we are. The fact is that it is not sustainable or workable in the long term for Britain to play such a pivotal role at eurozone financial ministerial level when, as a result of our own decision, we are not full-scale members of the club. I am not going to recommend that we change that, because we cannot. I am not even going to suggest that it is desirable for us to do so, because it would not be. However, the Government need to be aware of that, given the status that they have opted for, and given the challenges that they have set themselves in the present context. I congratulate the newly arrived Minister for Europe, if I may so describe her, on her appointment and wish her well. I am speaking here not so much in a party capacity; that contribution has already been made. I am speaking more on behalf of the all-party—and, indeed, non-party—European Movement, of which I serve as president at the moment. On behalf of its members in all parties in the House, as well as of its membership outside the House, I hope that the Government will continue to look favourably and constructively on its role—limited though it is and modest, but realistic, though our ambitions and aspirations are—in propagating a rational and constructive pro-European case within civic society in Britain. That role has been acknowledged by the Prime Minister from the Dispatch Box. The European Movement sought more than mere warm words from the Minister for Europe's predecessor. I do not know whether the file on that matter has made its way to the Minister's in-tray yet. If not, I am sure that it will do so as a result of these exchanges. The European Movement is now in its 60th year, and it used to receive a subvention direct from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It feels rather sore about the fact that ““common sense”” prevailed during the days of Mrs. Thatcher and—as some members of the Conservative party will be pleased to hear—that subvention was cut off. The organisation has not received a penny since. Given the heightened interest in matters European, and the role that members of all parties and those outside the House are seeking to play in the movement, one would have thought that a degree of support beyond mere rhetoric and warm words from the Government at the Dispatch Box and elsewhere could be favourably considered. I am not expecting an answer from the Minister tonight, but I know that representations have been made to the FCO and the Prime Minister from a variety of quarters. Unsurprisingly, in the context of this debate, reference has been made to the amazing effect that the reappearance of Peter Mandelson invariably seems almost instantaneously to engender in any context. Few have looked more pleased by Peter's reappearance than the Conservatives, and that was reflected in the shadow Chancellor's comments last week about Lord Mandelson being rumoured to have been the subject of the President of the European Commission's remarks about senior British politicians commenting to him favourably on the euro. Incidentally, there has never been the remotest piece of evidence to that effect. I have heard several very senior British Conservative politicians, among others, uttering precisely the same sentiments—not just recently, but over the past 12 months or so—all of whom have high-ranking pedigrees in former Tory Governments and have served in European capacities elsewhere as well. Anyway, the finger is now being pointed at Lord Mandelson, and I am never against his being blamed for things, whether he is guilty or not, because he is a master of that art himself. The fact is that, over-hyped though some of this might have been, it none the less highlights a significant truth that needs to be addressed a bit more rationally across the party political spectrum. Like it or not—we certainly all regret the circumstances that are giving rise to this—the euro is slowly but surely beginning to become a topic of discussion and comment, if not yet of full-scale political debate, which would not have been anticipated 18 months or two years ago. I am the first to acknowledge that that is happening for all the wrong reasons. We did not want the deepening recession that seems ahead of us to be the trigger, but trigger it has, in some respects, proved to be—not least in the precipitous fall in the level of the pound. When the currency is down more than 20 per cent. since the middle of the last calendar year, it is clear that something very dramatic is taking place. Although the source of the comments to which the President of the European Commission referred has undoubtedly been over-hyped, what cannot be over-hyped are the economic realities that this country faces. I speak as a non-economist. There are varying interpretations of Britain's current economic and financial plight, but as fairly as I can read the situation, the many who are contributing to the debate range from the gloomy at one end to the outright apocalyptic at the other. What is not in doubt, whether one's analysis is gloomy or apocalyptic, is that in coming years, according the Government's own recent statements, our economy will not meet any of the Maastricht convergence criteria, so to argue for entry into the euro now would be absurd and premature—but that is not to say that attitudes cannot change with the passage of time. My hope is that we can be a little more rational than we were in the past and at least acknowledge that there could be circumstances—only with the full engagement of the British public via a referendum process, so it would be a considerable number of years down the track and certainly not in the lifetime of this Parliament—in which we could revisit the euro issue.