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Mr. Cook: I am happy to assure the hon. Gentleman and the House that I absolutely share the call for full transparency between the European security policy and NATO. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will be relieved to hear that that is why we will agree at Feira to four separate working groups with NATO structures to ensure that full transparency and co-operation.
Mr. Donald Anderson (Swansea, East): Is not it a little patronising of the Opposition, who are trying to be more papist than the Pope, to purport to know the interests of Turkey and Norway better than the Governments of those countries? The Opposition also purport to know the interests of the United States better than the US Government. That is part of a pattern of flitting from frightener to frightener in the European debate generally.
Mr. Cook: My hon. Friend makes his point, and I suspect that we will find during the debate that the fears have moved on, now that those particular fears are not shared by any of the other members of NATO.
Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood): Will the Foreign Secretary give way on that point?
Mr. Cook: I have been generous in giving way so far. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will try to intervene later and I shall give him priority if he allows me to continue now.
Our higher standing in Europe has not only enabled us to take forward proposals that are in Britain's interests, but it has enabled us to see off proposals that could be
damaging to Britain's interests. Last year, we were under pressure to agree to a withholding tax across Europe--one of the other fears that the Opposition have brought up. This year, we have won the argument. There is not going to be a European withholding tax. Britain has secured majority support for our view that the better way forward is through increased transparency and exchange of information. Now it is the few member states who still resist greater transparency who are under pressure to agree to our proposals. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor deserves credit for having turned round the argument and ensured continuing success for Britain's financial industries.
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham): Is the Foreign Secretary arguing that he has decided to veto draft clause 93 in the treaty of Nice, which would allow the withholding tax--and many other tax proposals--through under a qualified majority vote which we had lost? If he is saying that, how can he say that the Government are at the heart of Europe and in full agreement with our partners? If he will not veto it, will not we end up with the withholding tax even though we do not like it?
Mr. Cook: I have repeatedly told the House--and since the right hon. Gentleman asks, I shall repeat again--that unanimity on taxation is one of our bottom lines for the IGC. We share that bottom line with several other countries. At present, there is unanimity about the introduction of qualified majority voting at the IGC on only three or four issues. Opposition Members should try to lose the fear they have that the IGC will produce a raft of agreement to QMV. I can tell the right hon. Gentleman--and he can take it as whatever relief and assurance he wishes--that we cannot hope to match his record in Government, when they approved 42 different articles for QMV.
The European Council will also confirm Greece as a member of the eurozone.
Mr. Cook: I assure the hon. Gentleman that Greece has met the conditions for membership of the eurozone and will be confirmed as a member. That will reduce to three the member states outside the euro. Denmark will hold a referendum in September on whether it should join and Sweden may take the same decision in 2002. The enlarging membership of the eurozone is the background against which we should judge the designation of last Saturday by the Opposition as save the pound day. If the Opposition really want people to have a choice on the euro, they would join Labour in offering the public a real referendum, not a postcard on which to give their names and addresses to the Tory Party.
In truth, the Opposition are not committing themselves to saving the pound for all time. It would have been much more honest if they had declared last Saturday "Save the Pound for One Parliament" day.
Even the Opposition's leader-in-waiting, the shadow Chancellor, no longer describes himself as a never man when it comes to replacing the pound. The Opposition owe it to the public to come clean about where they stand on the issue of principle. At the moment, they are
pretending that they are against the euro in principle, while reserving the right to change that principle after four years.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich): Will my right hon. Friend make it totally clear that any decision to enter the euro would be carefully spelled out to the British people in a referendum? Will he then make clear the connection between common currency, common taxation and the right of decision making in a parliamentary democracy?
Mr. Cook: I can assure my hon. Friend that there will be a clear commitment, as there has been for the past three years, that the British public will decide the matter in a referendum. Indeed, Labour is the only one of the two major parties that is giving that commitment. In that referendum my hon. Friend will be free to express all the views and arguments in which she believes. With respect, those of us who take a contrary view will be free to express those views as well.
Mr. Christopher Gill (Ludlow): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Cook: No, I must make progress.
Plainly, Britain can join the euro only if the economic conditions are right, but we will be ready for that event only if we prepare now and if, when the time comes, we decide on the basis of the economic tests. As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor said in his statement to the House:
- The potential benefits for Britain of a successful single currency are obvious in terms of trade, transparency of costs and currency stability.--[Official Report, 27 October 1997; Vol. 299, c. 583.]
Mr. Gill: Is the Foreign Secretary aware that our trade with Europe in fact represents less that 12 per cent. of gross domestic product? The single currency might arguably benefit that 12 per cent., but there would be absolutely no benefit to the other 88 per cent. of our GDP, which will have to suffer the inordinate cost of conversion.
Mr. Cook: I am astonished that the hon. Gentleman can found his argument on the basis that only 12 per cent. of GDP would benefit. That 12 per cent. represents the jobs of more than 3 million people in Britain, and it accounts for 58 per cent. of our total exports.
Mr. Cook: It is not rubbish: it is the true analysis of our exports of goods and services. If the Opposition can
wave aside as an inadequate consideration 58 per cent. of our exports of goods and services, the public will not listen to them when they come to make their choice.
Sir Richard Body (Boston and Skegness): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Cook: I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, but the figure that I gave is perfectly correct.
Sir Richard Body: Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the percentage export figure that he gave includes exports going to Rotterdam that are immediately re-exported to other parts of the world?
Mr. Cook: The hon. Gentleman is correct that Rotterdam is in Europe, and that our exports to Rotterdam count as exports to Europe. However, many of those re-exports go to countries of far less significance than the rest of the European Union. It is a matter of record that we export more to Denmark than we do to the whole of China.
Opposition Members want to talk about the United States, and I am aware that many of them would be happier if Britain were to join the North American Free Trade Agreement and leave the European Union, but they should reflect on the fact that we export to the United States only one third of the volume that we export to the other members of the European Union.
Our bottom line will be whether membership of the euro will assist in meeting our goal of full employment--a goal that we are on target to achieve in a way that the previous Government never did, through the creation of a million new jobs since this Government took office.
I have just returned from Damascus. I have come back to discover that the shadow Chancellor must also have been on the road to Damascus. He has experienced a dramatic conversion. He now tells us that he is committed to full employment. It is a pity that he did not discover that commitment when he was Secretary of State for Employment and that he did not do something about it then instead of busily plotting the demise of the Department for Employment.
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