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Mr. Cook: I shall proceed, if I may.
Mr. Jenkin: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
If the authors of the White Paper had been able to lift their eyes above the Government's obsession with deregulation, they could have offered a positive response to initiatives in Europe to stimulate employment. They could have told us what the Government would do about dropping their opposition to the sale of Union bonds to finance major transport projects throughout Europe. They could have told us that they will not oppose President Santer's proposal to transfer surplus funds from the agricultural budget to spending on industry and on support for small and medium-sized enterprises--a proposal that will definitely be on the table in Turin. Or they could have told us how they reconcile the convergence criteria with the urgent need to create more employment in Europe.
I pick up the point made in an intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith). The gaping hole in the White Paper is the absence of any discussion of the single currency. Paragraph 17 does say that the single currency is a "notable omission" from the IGC. It is certainly a notable omission from the White Paper. I can conceive of no other Government in Europe who would present to their Parliament a White Paper on Europe without a discussion on where they stood on the single currency.
The Foreign Secretary may be unaware of it, but a debate is raging on the continent about the link between the convergence criteria and employment levels. An election is being fought in Baden-Wurttemberg on that issue. The result may well prompt new thinking, even in the German Government, on the convergence criteria.
I find it negligent of the Government, at this crucial moment in the debate, to miss the opportunity of saying what they believe to be the way out of the problems created by the convergence criteria. Of course, I realise the problem for them in doing so. Whatever reservations they may have about the single currency, they signed up in full to the convergence criteria at Maastricht.
In the light of all that has happened since to the economies of Europe, was it right to adopt convergence criteria that have obliged many of the economies of Europe to deflate at the same time as one another? Is not the lesson of the past three years that any progress to a common currency in Europe can be stable and secure only if it is based on convergence to common economic performance of output, jobs, investment and unit costs--precisely the tests of convergence for which we have argued for three years? Judged by that standard, the White Paper's massive failure is its failure to propose a single European measure to stimulate investment, boost skills, develop technology or create jobs.
I know that the Foreign Secretary could not do anything so positive, because to do so he would need to appear enthusiastic about Europe. The Foreign Secretary's dilemma, which will not have been lost on him, is that he is seeking to produce a negotiating strategy for an international conference that would be acceptable to a nationalist party.
While the rest of the world builds regional alliances and is coming to terms with a global economy in which we are more interdependent than we are independent, the Conservative party is living on a planet of its own, demanding repatriation of even those powers that we have shared with our own regional alliance.
Mr. Cook:
Not all of them. Some Conservative Members are still on the same planet as the rest of us--I concede that. Nevertheless, the hon. Lady must face the fact that her party is gearing up to fight the next election on the slogan "Bring back King Canute!" and is adopting, in constituencies throughout Britain, candidates about whom all we can learn is that they are little King Canutes, whose views are modelled on the inspiration not of the hon. Lady but of the hon. Member for Stafford.
Mr. Cash:
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Cook:
As I mentioned the hon. Gentleman, I will give way.
Mr. Cash:
The hon. Gentleman refers to regional alliances and makes a comparison with the European Community. He knows that he is talking rubbish, because regional alliances being constructed elsewhere in the world have nothing to do with the legal framework that has been set up in the European Community.
Mr. Cook:
The advantage of that legal framework is that it gives Europe a single market which is the largest market
That is why a party with views increasingly modelled by the influence of the hon. Member for Stafford cannot successfully represent Britain's interests abroad--because it will not command respect abroad. Shortly before the White Paper, the chairman of the Europe committee of the Confederation of British Industry warned:
Since he said it, the grudging, querulous tone of the White Paper and the grudging, querulous welcome to it from Conservative Back Benchers have confirmed that the Government cannot command credibility in Europe. The failure of the White Paper and the hon. Gentleman's Government to rise to any of the major strategic issues facing Europe is one of the many reasons why they cannot, and will not, regain credibility in Britain.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Janet Fookes):
Before I call the next hon. Member to speak, I remind the House that there will now be a limit of 10 minutes on speeches.
Sir Edward Heath (Old Bexley and Sidcup):
When Parliament debated this country's entry into the Community, it debated for 10 full days, and more than 360 of its Members took part in those debates. We are now about to begin what may be the most important conference since Messina--certainly the most important since Paris in 1972--which we are told may take a year and a half, two years or longer, and what do we have in a debate? Well, Back Benchers, if lucky, have three hours, at 10 minutes each.
Is that any way to handle something that everyone agrees is the most important point? How can the Leader of the House and the Foreign Secretary justify their actions? If their objective is to try to hide divisions in the party, it is--and will continue to be--a failure. Those who are prepared to support the Government must speak out and make their positions clear. We should not hold our peace in order to avoid the impression that there are differences inside the party.
I am interested in the whole White Paper, but an early sentence caught my eye. It says:
Is "democratic legitimacy" what we have this evening: three hours in which to discuss a White Paper containing 10 vital subjects? It is not, and it is a disgrace to the House of Commons.
I must deal with a number of those important issues very quickly. The White Paper begins in a very positive way and my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary also began his speech in a positive manner. However, the White Paper is riddled with schizophrenia--just as my right hon. and learned Friend has "schizophrenia" written all over him. He says something good in one paragraph and then cancels it out in the next paragraph.
There are those who say that it is a mistake to produce a White Paper of that kind, and I rather agree with them. It contradicts the Foreign Secretary's argument that he must have flexibility in negotiation. Each time he returns from a meeting and makes a statement to the House--if he is so foolish as to do that--people will say, "But that does not agree with what you said in paragraph X, Y, Z and in sentence so-and-so." I have lived through all of that: I lived through two years of it in 1961 and 1963 and through another 18 months of it in 1970-71.
If my right hon. and learned Friend tries to tie himself down to the specifics as to what he will or will not do, he may find that when negotiating he must have the flexibility to agree with others in the Union. The other member states are described in the White Paper as"our colleagues from the continent". It seems to have escaped the Foreign Office's notice that Britain is a part of Europe geographically: we are part of the European continent. However, the other countries of Europe are treated as being on the other side--which does not encourage them to be helpful to us.
We then turn to the question of qualified majority voting. I must give my right hon. and learned Friend another warning. The Government tried to change that system once: the Prime Minister took it in hand himself, and he was humiliated, because there was no support for his actions. I beg the Foreign Secretary not to advance down that path again unless he is sure of securing support to carry him through. If he does not have that support, he will face the most appalling humiliation.
We have heard a great deal about the remarks by the French Prime Minister. I am sure that he is an admirable fellow. However, President Chirac will stand with Germany through everything: France and Germany will stand together the whole time. If it meant President Chirac's sacrificing his Prime Minister, he would not mind. Therefore, I ask the Foreign Secretary to examine with the utmost care the many stories about those who want to support us.
We then turn to the problem of the smaller countries. The Community was successful in its early years because it gave a proper vote to the smaller countries--to Luxembourg in particular, but also to Belgium and Holland. The figures are cited in the White Paper. Other countries have followed the same route and they will not give up easily--they make that absolutely clear when one talks to their representatives. They made it plain at the earlier meetings when the proposal was first advanced that they feared that their position in the Union, their economic safety and their political future rests in their having a proper say. Therefore, my right hon. and learned Friend will change that arrangement only with the utmost difficulty.
That brings me to the other point of discussion: enlargement. The British have always placed an emphasis upon enlargement. It comes from that deep, hidden well of
We have carried that attitude into the European Union. However, the plain fact is that the other members interpret it as being the British way of blocking any further development within the Union. That is why they oppose us so often.
"There is no credibility attached to the current British position in Europe."
5.58 pm
"it is crucial that national parliaments remain the central focus of democratic legitimacy".
"Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set".
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