Libya/European Council

Mark Reckless Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I share my hon. Friend’s dream, but I have not had to stand on his shoulders, nor he on mine, to realise it; we both have our feet firmly planted on the ground. On that ground, we will be out of all the bail-out arrangements by 2013. That was negotiated by us in Europe, and that is a worthwhile thing that we have achieved, but we are stuck with article 122 in the meantime.

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

It is good that we will not be liable for bail-outs after 2013, but will the Prime Minister build on his diplomatic successes by using the fact that we have a veto over the permanent arrangements as a lever to extract us earlier—and before we are on the hook for Portugal and Spain?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me just say again that I do not think we should speculate on other countries’ financial situations; we certainly would not like it if they speculated on ours. The point is that, in return for agreeing to the treaty change that was put forward, we had an opportunity to win some benefits for the UK. We got ourselves out of all future bail-out mechanisms, and we got an assurance that article 122 would not be used again once those operations were in place. I think that that was the right approach for the UK. It was doable, it was negotiable and it was tough work, but we got it, and to say that there was some other option on the table is, if I may say so, not realistic.