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European Affairs

There are clearly different opinions on the strategy, and whether the degree of it is correct, but not about its direction. There are questions about whether the involvement with the banks is too constrictive and whether state interference, which I happen to think is necessary at the moment, is likely to interfere with banking principles. Those are hot, and live, debates. We had a tripartite meeting of MEPs, the Lords and the Commons where that was a major topic. Baroness Cohen, who was a banker for many years, made a substantial and relevant contribution. She said that caution against expanding help from the states must be taken seriously. It is important not to think simply that if the model works for the banks, it should be used for every other section of the economy. There are worries, which we discovered when we went to the Czech Republic, that if the USA decides to bail out—or, quite frankly, subsidise—its motor industry, Germany might be tempted to do the same. If Germany does the same, the knock-on effect on the Czech Republic and Slovakian economy would be immense. We have to be focused on what we are giving people money for. If it is just to pour out machines that nobody wants to buy, it is pointless, but if it is to innovate and put things that people want to buy on to the market and restart sections of the economy, it makes a lot of sense. A number of contributors have talked about enlargement in various degrees, and there is an excellent document—an analysis—produced by the Commission on the enlargement process. Many of the concerns expressed by the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate about Turkey and Cyprus have been well covered in the document. It is clear that Turkey needs to continue with its internal political reforms if it is ever to be accepted as a member. Certainly the reports I have been reading have shown that there has been an increase in extra-judicial violence by the police in Turkey, which is worrying. As I think the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) said, one would think that Turkey would be tempted or attracted to meet the criterion so that it could get access to the European Union; yet it seems in some quarters to be going backwards. That reminds me of the Romania and Bulgaria scenario, whereby those countries were on their way to eradicating corruption at a high level and were then told that they could come in in 2008, if not in 2007. So, they stopped having to listen to the European Commission, and Bulgaria has now had the right to spend EU money removed because it is clearly not beyond corruption. In fact, corruption has increased, and there have been more than 100 contract killings in Bulgaria since it joined the EU. It is ridiculous that that should have happened. Clearly, it did not prepare itself and it was not assessed properly. There are serious questions about enlargement to Turkey, unless it gets itself back on the road in the way that it should. As the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate said, we know that talks are going on at the moment to try to work out a comprehensive settlement under the auspices of the United Nations. The Commission supports those efforts and has said clearly:"““It calls on both leaders to make decisive progress on Turkey to contribute to a favourable climate for such a comprehensive settlement.””" I do not believe that there is a positive climate from the Turkish side in these negotiations at the moment. Anyone who looks closely at the reports coming from the European Union must have deep concerns that that is the case. The hon. Member for Ribble Valley referred to the western Balkans, which has been mentioned again and again in the reports that we get from the European Union on enlargement. There are some serious concerns about that. The country nearest to being a new member is Croatia; yet the report on Croatia is quite clear and says that there are serious problems in Croatia with corruption, inability and lack of capacity in the judicial field. That is a worrying factor. If we have Romania and Bulgaria, do we then take in Croatia with the same flaws and problems and add to the problems that have not yet been solved in those two countries? Clearly, there is a problem with Slovenia. There is a minor problem between Slovenia and Croatia on the question of ports and access to the sea, which is similar to the problem in Turkey and Cyprus. We have serious concerns and to talk about Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro as if they are just a stepping-stone away from entry to the EU is to delude those countries and ourselves. One of the meetings I had today was with the Speaker of the Macedonian Parliament, and I said to him that I would put his—and their—concerns on the record. Macedonia says that it has done so much and that it should be put on the fast track to European membership at the beginning of the negotiation process. However, the Macedonian Speaker has not been reading the reports that I read about what is going on. There has been serious violence during the recent election, and inviting a country into the European Union that has violence during its election process would not encourage it to change. The major Opposition parties boycotted the Parliament for about four months because they did not get the balance of power that they wanted, which shows that it is not a country approaching membership of the EU seriously. However, Macedonian politicians have questions about the matter and say that even the visa process that politicians who come here regularly have to undergo is onerous, expensive and demeaning. They believe that it should be put to this Parliament that if they are to be treated seriously, at the very least a method of creating visa exemptions might be worked out. We have to be serious about a number of other items. When I went to the Czech Republic with the Committee about two weeks ago, just before the presidency, the most important news that we learned was that the Social Democratic party won all 20 seats in the senate elections—the Civic Democratic party, which is currently in government, lost those seats—which included the first ever woman elected to a state or regional presidency on a direct ballot. There is not even a name for her job—she is called ““the head man”” because there is no other name for it. The reason that the Social Democratic party won, we were told, was simple: it opposed missile defence and the strategy of putting a radar system on Czech soil. The latest poll shows that 65 per cent. of people in the country oppose that strategy. To finish, what concerned me was that the Czech Republic seemed to have more of a NATO and an anti-Russian view than a European Union view. That worries me greatly, because the problem with Cyprus is that Turkey was always seen as an important NATO ally. Sometimes the NATO agenda can counteract the European agenda, which is about peaceful coexistence, not historic antipathy towards another country, whether it be a large country such as Russia or a smaller country such as Cyprus. I have a problem with our approach to the enlargement process. We should take into consideration whether the agenda is an EU agenda or one that has perhaps been set across the Atlantic. For me, there should be an EU agenda and we should be full partners in it.