Intergovernmental Conference

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 7:29 pm on 21 March 1996.

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Photo of Mr Terry Davis Mr Terry Davis , Birmingham, Hodge Hill 7:29, 21 March 1996

The right hon. Member for Woking (Sir C. Onslow) began his speech by expressing surprise that his constituents had so little interest in the intergovernmental conference and our proceedings on the matter. He answered his own point. People are not interested in the IGC, or indeed the European Union, because they do not feel that the EU has any relevance to their personal and pressing problems. The EU is not seen as being relevant to problems of unemployment, standards of living, or the quality of life of people in any of our constituencies. The European Union's answer to that has been to spend money on propaganda to try to convince people in some mysterious way that it is relevant rather than tackling the bread and butter issues.

The right hon. Member for Woking went on to give a quite misleading description of the position taken by my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook). My hon. Friend did not say that a Labour Government with a large majority would not hold a referendum. He said—I have some reservations about the position taken by my hon. Friends on the Front Bench—that the question would be put in either a general election or a referendum.

I want a referendum. Unlike the right hon. Member for Woking, I have always voted for a referendum. I am not sure that I have ever seen him in the Lobby voting for a referendum. Some Conservative Members—I see them here tonight—joined us in the Lobby when we voted on an amendment calling for a referendum on the Single European Act and the Maastricht treaty, but I did not see the right hon. Gentleman on either of those occasions. Perhaps I have done him an injustice, and if I have, perhaps he will correct me.

Other misleading points have been made, particularly by Conservative Members. The right hon. Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton) made a misleading point at some length when he described his discussion with the French Gaullists. He said that other nations in Europe were different from the British and that they were wholehearted—he did not use that word, but that was the impression that he gave—in their acceptance that there was no inconsistency between, on the one hand, a sense of identity, and on the other, integration in the EU. He is clearly wrong.

Several other countries held referendums on the Maastricht treaty. It was very clear, especially in France, that substantial numbers of people did not agree with integration in the EU. I say especially in France because a majority there were narrowly in favour of the Maastricht treaty, and because leading figures in the campaign against the Maastricht treaty were leading figures in the French Gaullist party. The right hon. Member for Mid-Sussex misled the House—I am sure unintentionally—on that point.

That was not the only misleading point made by Conservative Members. There has been a tendency in the debate to suggest that the options are either integration or isolation, but there is a third option, which the Government are not expressing clearly, and certainly not with any enthusiasm. That is because the debate—it was very clear from the Foreign Secretary's speech—is seen by the Government as a debate within their own party. That was apparent from the Foreign Secretary's unwillingness to give way to my hon. Friends when they wanted to intervene, and the fact that he gave way to every one of his hon. Friends.

The whole business of isolation or integration is very misleading. There is an alternative vision for Europe: co-operation, partnership and working together. Of course we must work with neighbouring countries and people in other political parties in other countries. There is nothing weak or wet about that approach. It takes self-confidence to work in partnership with other people. Such a vision does not come through in the White Paper, which is a mistake and an omission—but not the only omission.

My hon. Friend the Member for Livingston pointed out the virtual total omission of any reference to the single currency. I would have liked the White Paper to begin with recognition of the fact that for the first time in the history of Europe, there is not a single dictatorship. In the past 60 years, we have seen off the fascist dictatorships of Germany, Austria and Italy; we have seen come and go the colonels in Greece; we have seen the fascists of Spain and Portugal disappear in the 1970s; and, more recently, in the 1980s and 1990s, we have seen the countries of eastern and central Europe become democracies. Some recognition of the fact that democracy has swept like a tide through Europe would have been very welcome in the White Paper as a background to the idea of partnership, co-operation and working together.

Another glaring omission in the White Paper is that there is no reference to other European institutions. If only by implication, the IGC will affect the working arrangements of the Council of Europe. The White Paper refers to the European convention on human rights, but makes no reference to the Council of Europe. The White Paper refers to the European Court of Human Rights, but makes no reference to the Council of Europe. That glaring omission is significant since the whole basis of the Council of Europe is co-operation and the idea of working together, which is what many of my hon. Friends, and I think many Conservative Members too, would advocate. We are not anti-European; we are part of Europe. We are not averse to other countries. We are not hostile to Germans or French and people in other countries; we want to work with them. That means working together—co-operation not integration.

When the Foreign Secretary said that no other Government in Europe favoured integration, he too was—undoubtedly unintentionally—misleading the House of Commons. The Belgian Government believe in integration, the Netherlands Government believe in integration, and so do the Luxembourg Government. Luxembourg might be only a small country, but its Government have a vote almost equivalent to that of the United Kingdom's. The German Government clearly believe in integration. One has only to read the comments of Chancellor Kohl to realise that. The Italian Government believe in integration—and such a belief does not stop there. Not only do Members of the European Parliament believe in integration; from my experience, many Members of Parliaments in other countries believe in it too. The question that we should face is what to do about it.

I do not understand the Foreign Secretary's distinction between multi-track and multi-speed. He said that he was opposed to multi-speed because it implied that everyone would arrive at the same terminus but at different times, and then said that he was in favour of multi-track. I do not know whether he envisages multi-tracks going in different directions. I thought that the whole point of multi-tracks was that they went to the same destination. I could not understand his ruling out multi-track any more than I could understand him ruling out outer and inner circles. I find such language slightly offensive.

If Parliaments of other countries want to integrate, we should not say no to that desire. We should accept that they are entitled to their point of view. We should not try to veto or stop them; we should make it clear that, although we do not want to be part of such integration, we are willing to co-operate with them in partnership and peace to achieve common objectives and ends. We should not try to sabotage their wishes. Such lack of vision and clarity damages us in Europe.