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The Prime Minister: I shall seek to deal with the matters covered by the IGC, although I notice that a number of the matters raised by the right hon. Gentleman had nothing whatever to do with it. They were not discussed in the IGC and, from the broad smile on his face, it seems that the right hon. Gentleman knows that very well. I hope that he enjoyed his mischief.
I deal first with beef. When we have concluded, of course we shall wish to consult on a package. By that I do not mean a long period of formal consultation. We need to move speedily. Of course we shall consult speedily with the people who are predominantly interested in this, but it is in the interests of everybody in the beef industry to reach an agreement with our European partners which we and they think will restore confidence in the beef industry. Confidence is the point. It is not so much a question of public health but confidence that now needs to be addressed, and clearly we need to do that speedily in everyone's interests.
On the measures previously announced, of course they are agreed with our European partners.
Selective slaughter may prove necessary. Two elements are involved. First, there is the need to ensure that milking herds that have finished their milking lives--that are spent--do not then enter the food chain. That does, of course, involve slaughter. Secondly, there is the question of whether any further selective slaughter should take place. Clearly, we need to base that decision on science as far as is practicable. We are looking at some novel ways of ensuring that we find the right beasts if it is deemed necessary to proceed.
It is impossible to give an estimate of the resources until the determination of the right method is concluded. As soon as that is known, I shall be able to give the right hon. Gentleman an estimate.
We have made it clear that we need the ban to be lifted as speedily as possible, not only in the interests of the United Kingdom. Beyond Europe, many countries are interpreting the ban on British beef as an unwillingness to import any European beef at all. A number of our European competitors are also finding that their beef is not being exported. It is a European problem, and those countries, as well as us, will need to consider the question speedily.
The quotation that the right hon. Gentleman used was amusing, but not accurate.
Mr. Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock):
Share it with us.
The Prime Minister:
If I wasted my time responding to every inaccuracy that appears either in the House or
Madam Speaker:
Order. I should be grateful if the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) would stop shouting from a sedentary position and listen to what the Prime Minister has to say.
The Prime Minister:
As for the intergovernmental conference, we are pursuing the question of reweighting the voting, and I anticipate that we shall have the support of a number of other states in achieving that. Britain is not likely to be isolated in this regard. It will be a matter of some importance, especially as the Community enlarges. I anticipate success. I do not anticipate any significant extension of qualified majority voting, and it is possible that there will be no single extension at all. We are not seeking to accept any. What may turn up in negotiations lies ahead; at present, we do not intend to accept any extension of QMV whatever. I hope that that is clear enough for the right hon. Gentleman: no extension of qualified majority voting.
As for fisheries, I said earlier that the list of matters to be dealt with in the IGC--[Interruption.] If the right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) would listen, he might know the answer.
I said in my statement that the list was not exhaustive. We will be looking for changes in the common fisheries policy, particularly to deal with quota hopping. I have set that out in the past. There may well be other matters, not yet identified either by us or by other nations, that will be dealt with at the conference. The list of matters set out at Turin is in no sense necessarily exhaustive either for us or for others.
Of course, by co-operation, there are things that the European countries can do collectively in regard to unemployment. We have no objection to that; what we strongly object to is the suggestion that this should become a European competence with legislation taken--perhaps by qualified majority vote--as part of the treaty. We are not prepared to have employment measures inserted in the treaty. Of course we will co-operate when it is reasonable and sensible to do so, but overwhelmingly we think that that is a matter for individual countries, not for the Community as a whole.
Mr. Robert N. Wareing (Liverpool, West Derby):
You have not been very successful, have you?
The Prime Minister:
The hon. Gentleman says that we are not very successful. We are a good deal more successful than any other major European country in bringing down unemployment. No other major European country has had unemployment falling as steadily as we have over the past two and a half years; no other major European country has had unemployment as low as ours over the past two and a half years; and no other major European country has had a higher proportion of its population in work as ours over the past two and a half years. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to compare employment records, I am happy to do so, because ours is undoubtedly a good deal better than anyone else's--especially those of the socialist Governments across Europe that we have seen operating in the economic climate of the past few years.
As for matters related to a referendum, I will let the right hon. Gentleman know as soon as I am in a position to do so and I will not be diverted on that point now.
One point I missed--as the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) reminded me from a sedentary position with his usual compulsive charm--was the question of the cost. The cost is a net position between the total that we pay in and the total that we get out. Where the European Union provides us with assistance, in the convoluted system that the European Union works, a portion of that finds itself deducted from our rebate, but there is a net significant advantage to the United Kingdom and any help from the European Union in that sense will of course be welcomed.
Sir Peter Hordern (Horsham):
In dealing with the employment aspect of the intergovernmental conference, has my right hon. Friend read the latest report from the Bundesbank review, which refers to the need for differentiation of wages in the German economy and to the high level of social costs and taxes in Germany being the reason for high unemployment levels? Will he give an undertaking that Britain will continue to have the lowest social costs in the European Union and that the future of the single market and of the European Union depends on having low social costs, which are necessary for it to be competitive both with the United States of America and with the far east? If that is not done, the single market will not succeed.
As for taking advice from the Opposition on matters of beef, does my right hon. Friend agree that they have been much more interested in playing party politics than in the livelihood of thousands of people throughout this country?
The Prime Minister:
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. On his last point, it is a matter not so much of my having noticed that, but of the 650,000 people who work in the beef industry having noticed it.
On my right hon. Friend's earlier point, clearly he is right about the relationship between employers' total costs and employment. He referred to differentiation of wages in Germany, but I should make the point that this is largely to do with other non-social costs. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development pointed out, in terms of net wage levels after tax, the UK compares favourably with all our European Union partners. The UK worker's net pay and what it will buy are good value compared with such pay in other European countries, which have become increasingly uncompetitive because of the amount of money over and above wages that every job costs employers. For every £100 in wages, an employer in this country faces extra on-costs of £18, but in some European countries, that figure goes up to as much as £44. On that basis, it is unsurprising that, in many European countries, there are fewer jobs than here.
As for the single market, my right hon. Friend is entirely right. The single market is immensely important for prosperity both here and throughout Europe. In many areas, it is not yet completed. We must ensure that it is completed. We shall continue to work for it to be so.
Mr. Paddy Ashdown (Yeovil):
When the Prime Minister told us that success always derived from less regulation, did he have in mind as an example the
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