European Union Bill

My Lords, it seems perhaps surprising but state aid is yet another area where powers granted to the EU have exceeded themselves. Noble Lords will have been aware that, in the recent Budget, the Government quite rightly wished to provide additional support for small companies and to widen the EIS to do that because the equity funding gap is up to £10 million. This has been limited because the state aid rules, which were rightly intended to stop unfair massive state subsidy of uncompetitive industries, have been used to decree that you fall foul if there are any sort of tax incentives to companies with more than 50 employees or those raising more than £2 million per annum. This ridiculous intrusion into the economic life of this country has been put in under the guise of state aid, so the Government have rightly said ““We are going to go back and renegotiate this””. However, instead of being able to put in the financial support when it is needed—when the economy is on its back as a result of the last Government’s failures—we have to wait another year to try to negotiate to widen these issues. I have some sympathy with what the noble Lord has said in principle but, when it comes to experience, the last thing I want to see is any more state aid powers.