Excessive Deficits

Part of Orders of the Day — European Communities (Amendment) Bill – in the House of Commons at 1:15 am on 24 March 1993.

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Photo of Mr Peter Shore Mr Peter Shore , Bethnal Green and Stepney 1:15, 24 March 1993

It is outrageous, and I shall develop my reasons for saying so. The whole notion of an alien body imposing fines and penalties on a sovereign nation is entirely unacceptable.

I was referring to the policeman role of the Commission, which will monitor, identify gross errors and draw up a report. The provision says that it will take account of whether a Government's deficit exceeds Government investment expenditure, as though that were somehow less a matter for condemnation than if it was simply a current account deficit.

We have not been told what weight the Commission will give to such matters, but we should not be over-cheered when we consider Government investment expenditure in this country as a percentage of GDP, because it accounts for a small part of the total. Indeed, in the Red Book published this year, we got a picture of general Government investment. It showed that between £11 billion and £12.5 billion—about 2 per cent. of GDP—is the total of Government investment. I ask the Committee to bear those details in mind as I describe the relevance of the figures.