European Community Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:37 pm on 10 July 1984.

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Photo of Robin Cook Robin Cook , Livingston 4:37, 10 July 1984

I and all my honourable colleagues wish to see a switch in priorities and resources from agriculture into these new areas. When there is evidence that the Community is both willing and capable of achieving that switch in resources, we shall consider increasing the global sum. We see scant such evidence at present.

To be fair to the Government, I can understand the difficulty experienced by the Chancellor in seeking to get effective control of agriculture expenditure because the common agricultural policy might have been devised to resist budgetary control. The point is well made in the report of the Treasury and Civil Service Committee that the difficulty is that the expenditure on agriculture, which is two thirds of the total, is demand-led. As I understand the mechanism under discussion, it focuses on the annual price settlement. Tragically, it is not the annual price settlement which necessarily determines the final outturn costs of the agricultural policy. Indeed, this year, as the Foreign Secretary has reminded us, the Agriculture Ministers agreed to a price settlement which is less than the rate of inflation. Nevertheless, agriculture expenditure this year will go up by 20 per cent., and is £1 billion overspent.