European Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:59 pm on 14 December 2005.

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Photo of Kelvin Hopkins Kelvin Hopkins Labour, Luton North 5:59, 14 December 2005

If we were to use it as a biofuel rather than dumping it on Malawi, I would be very pleased. Selling cheap subsidised sugar to the Malawians is not the way to proceed, when they can produce sugar themselves.

I want briefly to discuss the effects of the CAP by considering EU agricultural spending per head in member states with comparable living standards to our own: in Ireland, agricultural spending—these are rough figures and might be out by a few euros here or there—amounted to €460 per head of population in 2004; in Denmark, the figure was €275; in France, €160; and in Britain, €65. Ireland, which has a similar standard of living to our own, has seven times the subsidy per head for agriculture; Denmark, which is a richer country than Britain, has four times as much subsidy; and France, a big country which is comparable to Britain, has two and a half times as much subsidy. The position on subsidies is nonsense.

I agree with those hon. Members who have argued that we should provide more for the newer member states and if any redistribution takes place, it should be towards them and not the richer western European nations. If we compare the subsidy per head in Spain and Poland, which have similar populations but different living standards—Spain is considerably richer than Poland—Spain spends €150 per head and Poland spends €15 per head, which means that spending differs by a factor of 10.

Hon. Members have discussed structural funding and I have examined the structural funding tables for 2004. The Spanish get 10 times more in structural funds than the Poles. I know that such funding is phased over a period. We keep saying that we want to be generous to those countries, but we are not being generous, and the fault lies with the CAP.

Britain is being guilt-tripped about our rebate, which is justified on the basis that we are the least favoured by the CAP among the western European nations. The problem is not our rebate but the CAP. If we were to get rid of the CAP tomorrow, reduce contributions accordingly and repatriate spending, we could examine what we need to do and allow the situation to settle down. In that case, the budget would be more understandable, which would allow us to adjust it to make sure that poor nations receive according to their living standards and that we give according to our wealth.

We should not accept any accusations of guilt from the big beneficiaries of the CAP and we should not back off. I am glad that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary is negotiating for us, because I have great confidence in him. I am pleased that he is batting for Britain on this very sticky wicket. I am not sure that members of the Commission understand cricketing metaphors—if they played cricket, we might get a bit further. My right hon. Friend is doing the best job in difficult circumstances. I hope that he will emphasise that the main issue is not our rebate but the CAP. If we want to help the poorer nations more, we can, but first we have to deal with the CAP.

We must move towards an EU budget—I have said this many times before in these debates—that is fair and equitable according to the living standards in the different member states, which means that the rich give most and the poor receive most. That is completely screwed up by one simple fact—the existence and operation of the CAP. I urge my Front-Bench colleagues to consider how to move away from the CAP and towards a more sensible approach to agriculture.

Many people argue that, if we got rid of the CAP, member states would subsidise their agriculture even more and we would have a worse problem. I do not think that that would happen, because a Government's own taxpayers would have to bear the cost of the subsidies and they would be under pressure not to spend too much and to reduce those subsidies. At the moment, they are spending other people's money—largely British money, in fact. It is always easier to spend other people's money than one's own. In Britain, we would stop subsidising Tate & Lyle to the tune of nearly €200 million a year—a ridiculous amount. We would also stop subsidising some of the very wealthy farmers—the landed gentry who in the past were represented by Conservative Members. Indeed, royalty, including the Duchy of Cornwall, gets these subsidies. If we did that, other countries might do the same, especially if we appealed to them to play their part in helping the world's poor to find their way forward.

I would go further. I am not automatically a free trader. If a poor country wanted to restrict imports of subsidised agricultural products from countries such as France, we should let them do so in order to protect their own farmers. Simple free trade and forcing them to open their markets to our goods will not help them in any way. There are two sorts of protectionism—by the rich to help themselves and by the poor to ensure that they have a chance in this difficult and competitive world.