EU: UK Membership

Lord Stevens of Ludgate Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevens of Ludgate (Con Ind)]

My Lords, we are here today, thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, to debate the economic impact of being a member of the EU. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wrigglesworth, on an excellent maiden speech. In addition, contrary to some comments that have been made, I agree with practically everything that the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, said. She summed the situation up brilliantly, which is why my speech will be somewhat shorter than usual.

No one could doubt that the impact has been of major importance. The European treaties are the UK’s supreme constitution, over and above our laws, as per the European Communities Act 1972. The UK’s cash contribution to the EU is second only to that of Germany. Since 1973, the UK has paid to the EU some £370 billion and received in return £180 billion—this to an organisation whose own auditors say that 90% of the EU’s entire budget has been materially affected in some way by fraud or unaccounted spending. If sending to the EU some £12 billion net in 2013 is perhaps not of major impact in relation to the total UK budget, the economic cost of regulation is. The European Commission itself puts the EU costs of regulation at £600 billion a year for all the members. Business for Britain, supported by more than 500 business leaders, has told us that since the 2010 general election, Brussels has handed down 3,600 new pieces of regulation or directives—some 13 million words—ranging from banning the union jack on packs of meat to changing the generic name of the tomato.

Let us pause for a moment and look at Open Europe’s report on EU regulations that came out last Monday. It says that the top 100 EU regulations cost the UK economy some £27 billion a year and that the costs of regulation outweigh the benefits in impact assessments of a quarter of the 100 cases. Of course, as has been stated, were the UK to leave the EU, some of these regulations would need to be retained.

The EU was sold to the British public as a free trade area. It has indeed brought trade barriers down, as has the WTO. Some 40% of our trade is with the EU—a declining proportion, partly because EU trade has slowed down since the 2008 collapse, but also because the share of the EU in global trade and outputs has been declining and will continue to do so, if for no other reason than the demographic problems of its ageing and declining population.

As has been stated, we have a trade deficit with the EU of more than £80 billion a year, larger than our surplus with the rest of the world. It needs us more than we need it. As far as economic influence is concerned, the euro members can outvote us in any matter not requiring a unanimous vote. As we all know, EU regulations apply to 100% of the UK economy, but our trade with the EU is less than 10% of the UK economy. Our trade with the rest of the world, in spite of these regulations, is growing much more rapidly than with the EU. How much more rapidly would it grow without EU regulation?

I have not commented on unlimited immigration, handouts to illegal immigrants, inflated agricultural prices and many other matters, because time inhibits it.

The original subject of this debate was “economic benefit”. That has changed to “economic impact”. It seems almost to have developed into a debate over “in” or “out”. We heard in Oral Questions today that the majority of the British public support some control of the press. I declare an interest as a former chairman of Express Newspapers. On this basis, the majority want a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU: in or out. Is it not time that we had one?