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Sir Terence Higgins: Does the hon. Lady agree that the move towards the convergence criteria is having a deflationary effect, with an adverse effect on unemployment?
Ms Quin: Yes, there are difficulties with the convergence criteria, which were ably discussed by my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston.
However, we should look at the other parts of the treaty too. It is a bit of an ideological mix, and certain elements of it can be quoted against other elements. I commend to the right hon. Member for Worthing (Sir T. Higgins) article 2, which talks about
Interestingly, but probably not to the liking of the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends, it also refers to
We must use all aspects of the treaty that can be to our benefit when we want the important issue of employment to be tackled within the IGC. I mentioned the proposals by the Austrian Government, and I have also seen some interesting proposals by the Irish Foreign Ministry in its submission on economic and monetary union, entitled "Social Cohesion and Employment". Those are very much on the same lines, but in some ways they go further, talking about not only an employment chapter but a stabilisation fund, a stability pact, and proposals to improve the employment intensity of economic growth.
Finally, another interesting submission has been made by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for consideration by the IGC. It talks about the importance of measures to tackle the European Union's high unemployment. Again, it stresses the importance of giving some hope to people on the margins of the labour market who have little chance of getting decent employment.
In the debate, certain matters that have been hidden up to now have come out into the open. My hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) was right to note the number of Conservative Members who raised the agenda of withdrawal from the European Union. That agenda has come out into the open more than in any other debate on this subject.
There were also some views on the social chapter that have not previously been so openly expressed as they were today. Rather than being the triumph that the Prime Minister claimed, many Conservative Members clearly think that the opt-out is not worth the paper that it is written on. Indeed, that form of words was used by a Conservative Member during Prime Minister's questions today and shows once and for all that, rather than being game, set and match, Maastricht was an ignominious defeat for the Government.
The Government's policy risks ending up with the worst of all worlds. They often take up postures in the EU that they are later forced to retract. The Home Secretary said that he was against any declaration on racism in the European Union. He has now at least partly caved in on that. Baroness Thatcher spoke out strongly against qualified majority voting but agreed to its massive extension in the Single European Act. The Prime Minister blocked Jean-Luc Dehaene's candidature for the presidency of the European Commission and leapt from the frying pan into the fire with the inauguration of Jacques Santer as President of the European Commission.
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. David Davis):
This has been a stimulating debate. Too many of my right hon. and hon. Friends have made excellent contributions for me to list them all. They have ranged from that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Sir E. Heath), who I am sorry to see is not here, through my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Hurd), via Kingston and on to Wokingham. It has been an interesting range.
Mr. MacShane:
What about Stafford?
Mr. Davis:
As Labour Members want to join in, I have especially enjoyed the contributions of the right hon. Members for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore),for Chesterfield (Mr. Benn) and for Llanelli (Mr. Davies),if only as a corrective to the view of Europe of their Front-Bench spokesmen.
We also learned a little about the views of the hon. Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook). He clearly thinks that I should be allowed to negotiate for the country only when the moon is not full. I do not know whether he is trying to characterise me as the beast of Boothferry, but it would not be the first time that demonisation has been tried.We also learned that his grip of English history is not that good. He compared us to King Canute, forgetting that when Canute showed that he could not stop the tide,he was giving his courtiers a lesson in humility. That is a point to which I may return if I have time to discuss Labour's policy.
Mr. Tony Banks:
Canute was Danish.
Mr. Davis:
He also ruled much of England, including the part that I live in.
I welcome the fact that the House had the opportunity to debate the Government's vision of Europe, which is clearly and comprehensively set out in the White Paper. It is a vision of practical co-operation, not doctrinal Euro-theology. It seeks to harness diversity, not to impose conformity. It is a vision close to the citizen that does not ignore either national interest or public opinion in pursuit of political dreams. Success at the IGC, although by no means the only important negotiation in the next few years, is an important step in the process of delivering that vision.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary laid out the challenges and options for Europe at the beginning of the debate. Those challenges are clear.I should like to draw the attention of the hon. Member for Livingston to the first item with which I start--the need to enlarge Europe to ensure peace and stability. We need to cut the burdens of Europe to deliver competitiveness, prosperity and jobs. We need to reform Europe's policies and their financing to make enlargement and competitive success possible.
We need to shape Europe's institution to create a decentralised structure that recognises and works with the sovereignty of nation states and does not undermine or erode the powers of those states.
Mr. Cash:
Can my hon. Friend tell me exactly how he proposes to achieve that objective specifically?
Mr. Davis:
That takes up about two thirds of the rest of my speech, so I shall carry on.
That model of Europe is designed to maximise the success and minimise the strains of the Europe of the coming decades. I stress that it is one that is designed to deliver success for the people of Europe. I say that most particularly to my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton) and my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Whitney). It is not a model that just suits our national prejudices; it is one that we think is best for Europe as a whole.
The hon. Member for Livingston said that he thought that what we were attempting in the negotiations was impossible and undeliverable. After eight months on the study group, I am the last to say that there are not, still, powerful forces for federalism in Europe--institutional and national forces. They have been discussed eloquently today by hon. Members on both sides of the House.
I still do not agree with the hon. Member for Livingston, who said that our objectives in the White Paper were not capable of negotiation. Had he been standing at the Dispatch Box 15 years ago, he would have said that the United Kingdom rebate was not capable of negotiation, because, by definition, there was just one of us pursuing it and we had no allies to start off with.So Lady Thatcher would have had news for him.
Mr. Davis:
Had the hon. Member for Livingston been standing at the Dispatch Box five years ago--I also address this to my hon. Friend for Stafford (Mr. Cash),as he intervened--he would have said that the EMU opt-out and the social opt-out were not capable of negotiation. My hon. Friend would not want them, either.
Had the Labour party been in government, the United Kingdom's rebate and other issues would not have been capable of negotiation, because the Opposition are uncomfortable with standing alone for our interests in Europe.
Mr. MacShane:
Does the Minister still believe that the United Kingdom has an opt-out from the social chapter in real terms, given that everything from which we are supposed to have opted out, whether it is the European works council or the 48-hour week, is coming in anyway?
Mr. Davis:
Indeed I do, and I shall deal later in my speech with the institutions that have got around the opt-out and, nevertheless, the continuing importance of the opt-out.
I believe that the hon. Member for Livingston said that we do not take enlargement seriously enough. I reject that claim out of hand. It is unfortunate that my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup is not here, because I disagreed wholeheartedly with what he said about enlargement. It is clear to me that the generous
treatment of the new democracies of central and eastern Europe is the single most important contribution that we and other European countries can make towards the peace and stability in Europe in the next two decades. My right hon. Friend was quite wrong about enlargement, and I want to put our view on the record.
We must do a great deal more than just what is proposed at the IGC towards achieving peace and stability, most particularly in terms of policy reform.The United Kingdom has long championed the cause of reform of the CAP. That reform is inescapable. The CAP faces three major challenges: the likelihood of new food mountains early next century, further liberalisation of trade when new World Trade Organisation negotiations begin in 1999, and the unaffordability and unsustainability of the current CAP when the Union enlarges.
We must address these problems now--in parallel with the IGC--for the sake of our farmers, for the sake of the new democracies and, not least, for the sake of our consumers. Similar arguments apply to the reform of the structural cohesion funds. That reform is unavoidable.We must ensure that we do not face the doubling of those funds--as we would if we did not reform them--when we go to enlargement in the course of the new century.
I refer to the IGC. The United Kingdom strongly favours a Union that is more responsive to the needs of an increasingly diverse membership. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister led the way in his Leiden speech when he called for a more flexible development of Europe.We should be suspicious of conformity for its own sake.The creation of the pillared structure of Maastricht was welcome recognition that Community institutions and procedures are not appropriate to every area of policy--even the Liberals agreed with that at one point today.
"a high degree of convergence of economic performance, a high level of employment".
"a high level of . . . social protection".
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