EU: Economic Governance

Lord Eatwell Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Eatwell]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for repeating as a Statement the Answer given to a Question asked in the other place. Before dealing with the issues referred to in the Statement, might I correct a factual error? The noble Lord stated that,

“on the day of the spending review, the vast majority of Labour MEPs”,

voted,

“against a freeze in the EU budget”.

The noble Lord is misinformed. In fact, on Tuesday, Labour MEPs voted against proposals for an increased EU budget. Moreover, Labour MEPs tabled amendments to cut more than €1 billion from wasteful areas such as agriculture and export subsidies. Perhaps the noble Lord would like to reflect on the fact that, on the day of the comprehensive spending review, Tory MEPs voted to increase the European Parliament’s entertainment budget by 50 per cent. Will the noble Lord correct his colleagues in another place?

In the Statement, the noble Lord argued—entirely correctly, in my view—that,

“a strong and stable eurozone … is in our interests just as much as in the interests of our neighbours”.

It follows that we in the UK have a major economic interest in the fiscal policies and arrangements of the eurozone. Will the Minister tell the House what role the UK has played in EU discussions on the co-ordination of eurozone economic policy to date? What measures of policy co-ordination throughout the European Union would Her Majesty’s Government support? What role, for example, did the Government play in the recent weakening in the German position on sanctions imposed on those countries running fiscal deficits in excess of those defined in the stability and growth pact? Does he support the view of President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel that a new EU treaty would be required to develop a new stability regime in Europe?

Matters of economic stability are global matters. Important decisions affecting the future of the UK will be taken at the G20 summit in Seoul next month. Given that many of the matters to be discussed at the Seoul summit, including the development of international financial regulation, are matters in which the EU now has an overarching role, will the UK be co-operating with our EU colleagues who are members of the G20 to present a united voice in Seoul?