The Prime Minister made a statement, yesterday, at the House of Commons, on last Monday’s Informal European Council. Bill Cash made the following intervention:
The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron): With permission, Mr Speaker, I should like to make a statement on yesterday’s informal European Council. Countries right across Europe need bold action to recover their economic dynamism, to get to grips with their debts and to secure growth and jobs for the future, and that was rightly the focus of this Council. So, first, we agreed important measures needed to restore Europe’s competitiveness; next, we discussed the separate intergovernmental treaty on fiscal discipline in the eurozone; and, finally, we issued a statement on Iran, Syria and Burma. I am going to take each in turn.
Britain’s agenda in Europe is to promote growth, competitiveness and jobs. We have said repeatedly that the best way in which the EU can drive growth and create jobs is to complete the single market, establish trade deals with the fastest growing parts of the world and cut the regulatory burdens on business. At this Council we made important progress on all those issues. We agreed to establish a fully functioning single market in services, where there are still 4,700 professions across Europe for which access is regulated by Government, and in digital, where there are more than a dozen copyright regimes in what should be one single market. We will take action to secure what should be a fast-growing area right across Europe. The changes on services and digital alone could add more than 6% to EU GDP within a decade. We also agreed to complete the energy single market, which has the potential to cut costs for businesses and consumers across Europe. On free trade, we said that 2012 should be a “decisive year” in which to move ahead on trade agreements with major partners such as Japan, India, Canada and the United States. On regulation, we agreed to a growth test, for the first time, to ensure
“that all actions at the European Union level fully support economic growth and job creation.”
We also agreed to reduce regulatory burdens, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, and to complete a patent package to support innovation. That has been discussed in Europe for more than a decade and finally we are making decisive progress.
We want the eurozone to sort out its problems, which are having a chilling effect on our economy. Tackling them is one of the best ways in which we can help to secure growth in Britain and right across Europe. As I have said repeatedly, short-term steps—the so-called October package—must be taken, and taken properly. Europe’s banks must be recapitalised properly, the uncertainty in Greece must be brought to a decisive end, and the firewall that needs to be constructed must be big enough to deal with the full scale of the crisis and the potential contagion. In the longer term, proper fiscal discipline in the eurozone is clearly an important part of the solution. Britain recognises that that is necessary. The question has never been whether there should be greater fiscal discipline in the eurozone, but how it should be achieved. I went to the European Council last December prepared to agree a treaty of all 27 countries, but only if there were proper safeguards for Britain. I did not get those safeguards, so I vetoed the treaty. As a result, eurozone countries and others are now making separate arrangements outside the EU treaties for strengthening budgetary discipline, including by ensuring that there are much tougher rules on deficits. At this Council, 25 EU member states agreed a new treaty outside the EU. Britain and the Czech Republic have not signed up and we will not be taking part.
Let me deal directly with the issue of the institutions. The new agreement sets out roles for the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. Although some of those roles are permitted through existing treaties, there are legal questions about what is planned. As I have said, it is in Britain’s interests that the eurozone sorts out its problems. It is also in our interests that the new agreement outside the EU is restricted to issues of fiscal union and does not encroach on the single market. The new intergovernmental agreement is absolutely explicit and clear that it cannot encroach on the competencies of the European Union and that measures must not be taken that in any way undermine the EU single market. Nevertheless, I made it clear that we will watch this matter closely and that, if necessary, we will take action, including legal action, if our national interests are threatened by the misuse of the institutions. [ Interruption. ]
Mr Speaker: Order. There is a fine line between jollity and hysteria. I fear that the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) is in danger of having crossed it. He must calm himself, by whatever means necessary.
The Prime Minister: The principle that the EU institutions should act only with the explicit authorisation of all member states remains. Let me be clear: this is a treaty outside the EU. We are not signing it, we are not ratifying it, we are not part of it and it places no obligations on the UK. It does not have the force of EU law for us, nor does it for the EU institutions or for the countries that have signed it, and there will be no inner group of European countries distorting the single market from inside the EU treaty. That is the fundamental protection that we secured with our veto in December, and that protection remains.
Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con): My right hon. Friend will know that the European Scrutiny Committee is making an inquiry into the nature and lawfulness of the agreement otherwise known as this non-EU treaty. Will he accept that the problem we have in European policy making is that it is on a slippery slope towards a more coercive, more federal and less democratic Europe? Will he give us his assurance that never, while he is Prime Minister, will we fold this non-EU treaty into the treaties as a whole?
The Prime Minister: To answer my hon. Friend’s second question first, obviously this treaty cannot be folded back into the EU without the agreement of every EU member state. We did not sign this treaty, because we did not get the safeguards that we wanted, and that position absolutely remains. My hon. Friend is right to make the point about the danger of a slippery slope that can be created by signing EU treaties and the use of the EU institutions. The whole point is that because this is not an EU treaty—because it is outside EU law—we are not in danger of that happening.
