European Union Bill

I recognise the familiar themes of the noble Lord’s argument. I will say just a little about the EU budget, which remains in many ways unbalanced to the disadvantage of the United Kingdom. It was, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a very sore issue in the United Kingdom’s relations with the other member states of the EEC. Things have changed a good deal since then. I was encouraged to see that agriculture spending has now fallen to 40 per cent of the EU budget. I was appalled to note that, in terms of net contributors and net beneficiaries, Luxembourg and Belgium are still listed among very substantial net recipients, while the UK has now been joined by Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany—the largest single contributor—France and Italy as a net contributor. We now find ourselves as part of a bloc that is pushing for economy and a restrained approach to EU spending. We contribute to EU spending for shared purposes. The Foreign Secretary made a speech in which he talked about increased European contributions to democratic transition across the Mediterranean. The most useful dimension of the EU budget in many ways has gone to that investment in security and development in eastern Europe through the structural funds which has helped to consolidate democracy and build a market economy in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and elsewhere. We want to achieve a decade of spending restraint in Europe and we have partners—France, Germany, Sweden and others—that are also committed to that. I wish to say a little to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, and his colleagues about the option of leaving. Non-EU members also contribute to the EU budget. Norway contributes some €350 million a year. Switzerland, which is not a member of the European economic area, nevertheless contributes some €645 million a year under a bilateral agreement with the EU. There are wider issues of contributions to and through international organisations, which the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, has raised. I note that the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, seems to object to Britain contributing to stabilisation in Europe through the EU but not through the IMF, through which we also contribute. Given that the IMF is now receiving rather more publicity than it was last week, he might like to turn his fire also on the IMF. We contribute to the common budget of NATO. As the noble Lord has suggested, we contribute to the common budget of a large number of UN agencies. There are also issues of accountability and value for money there, but that is a wider debate for another time. I suggest that—