My Lords, I too pay tribute to Lord Sacks—a huge loss.
In moving Amendment 169A, I will also speak to Amendments 169B and 169C in my name. Should the UK Parliament have exclusive ability to legislate for a subsidy control regime once the United Kingdom
ceases to follow EU state aid rules, without including the possibilities of hidden subsidies, for example through research and development? In these circumstances, I am not arguing at this late hour about whether the Prime Minister will achieve a deal, as the case may be, or whether we will have to abide by WTO rules. Either way, I ask your Lordships that research and development subsidies, hidden or not, be included in the Bill to provide much needed safeguards.
I made my maiden speech in the European Parliament on this subject in 1989, stressing the danger of allowing covert research and development subsidies to creep into state aid legislation before 1992, so that it did not come to stand for
“not the birth but the death of free competition.”
This was the possible abuse of state aid and member states feather-bedding their own industries.
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Leon Brittan was our United Kingdom commissioner in charge at the time. He did a magnificent job. We worked together for the United Kingdom on the distortion of French and Italian bids hiding behind state aid to our disadvantage. We abided by the rules but we lost. Cossor Electronics, a UK company in Harlow, was bidding for the air traffic control contract for the Hong Kong airport. We suspected that their bids went through research and development projects; make of it as you will, it was wrong. At this instance, we felt the hideous effects of distorted competition when the EU integration process had hardly begun. That is why I ask your Lordships to support these amendments: to have research and development incorporated into this Bill now, regardless of our EU position, to safeguard unfair state aid in any future international contracts. I beg to move.