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European Affairs

I am not going to give way given that I have been called to speak with 15 minutes to go after a series of rather lengthy speeches. The hon. Member for Stone said that this debate was important. I think that European debates are so important that I always find it disappointing not to see the Chairs of every Select Committee in the Chamber. These matters are not only for those who have a specific interest in European politics. This is not just about people who have wide-ranging statements to make about European politics, but about the things that we are working on in the European Union. The question is whether the UK is at last a mature and confident partner in this process as we go into an election year. Today I spent time as Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee receiving large delegations from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Macedonia, including its Speaker, all of whom looked to the procedures in this place and the attitude of the United Kingdom to much wider matters in letting them move forward as partners. They also met the Opposition Front-Bench spokesperson, the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois). They see us as having a wide-ranging involvement in the serious matters that Europe must deal with. I would have liked some time to talk about what is on the table—not opinions, bluff or bluster, but the things that we are tackling together as a European Union and which cannot be tackled in any other way. An energy policy for Europe is vital. It is quite clear that no country can exist by having an energy policy on its own. The Commission has produced a very good green paper detailing the Commission's plans on the energy policy for Europe, which was circulated and debated. It spoke of a European grid, interconnection levels between member states, investment in electricity generation for the next 20 years in a planned and programmed manner, open national markets and free competition. That latter point leads us to the question of opening out the liberalised markets to a flow of investment and energy that is not dependent on any one country, as it is at the moment. At the moment, 63 per cent. of gas energy production is provided by the Russian Federation, and that figure will rise to more than 70 per cent. unless something is done about that situation. We have seen excellent initiatives, such as the getting together of Norway and the Netherlands to create a variable balance where hydro power can provide energy to the grid alongside wind power, so that they can balance out their needs. There clearly is a question about climate change and renewables. In our country, we are looking at whether those renewable commitments are affordable, but it seems that the intention is to drive renewable commitments up to a proposed level of 15 per cent., and for everyone to reduce their emissions by 20 per cent. That is great for the climate change agenda, but in a financial crisis we may need to be much more flexible. There is much we can do in that area together that we cannot do alone. It is foolish to think that we could do it alone; the EU has the structures to contribute to the process. On the economic crisis—the credit crunch and the wider recession—the European Union has a European economic recovery plan. It is talking about a couple of principles in one main platform. There are two key pillars, the first of which is a major injection of purchasing power into the economy of Europe. It is an injection of £200 billion, with £170 billion coming from the member states of the EU and £30 billion coming from joint EU funds. I know that small businesses in my community are looking to that fund to get finance to them as quickly as possible. The banks are squeezing finance out at the moment, when they need to be putting it in. Hopefully, that will come together. The second pillar is a need to direct short-term action to reinforce Europe's competitiveness. It is not a move to run away and become protective, but a move to expand the markets to allow the economy to recover. The overarching fundamental principle is that the process should be one of solidarity and social justice. I do not think that that can be done within any one country. We know from the depression in America in the 1930s that when any one country locks things down, the economies of all countries start to do so, and they shrink.