Not So Nice, After All

Written by Andrew Duff MEP and published in Hertfordshire (Herts) Mercury on Fri 15th Dec 2000

The No. 10 spinning machine has been in over-drive since the European Union's leaders met in Nice for their important summit meeting last week. Of course it is important that public scepticism about Europe is confronted and Tory hysteria is exposed for what it is, but it would be a pity if public relations were to override all other considerations in the making of British European policy.

The Treaty of Nice was supposed to make the EU ready for enlargement. Central to that project is the completion of the widest possible single market so that business can work across Europe without bureaucratic or political impediment. Mr Blair has said he is particularly keen on the single market. Unfortunately, at Nice he drew back from supporting measures that would have met his goal. He refused to make it easier for citizens to work and move freely throughout the Union. He blocked the possibility of ironing out the pitfalls, booby traps and evasion in social security and tax policy. He chose not to lift British opt-outs in the vital areas of monetary or judicial policy. He failed to persuade the French to liberalise trade policy. He allowed the Southerners to retain their grip on EU spending plans.

The prime minister also opposed many important measures of political reform of the Union. He declined to let the European Parliament have a real say in agricultural, social or regional development policy. He agreed that Britain should lose 15 of our 87 MEPs, whereas the Germans keep all their 99. He connived with the Germans and the French in making decision-making in the Council both more difficult and obscure. He insisted that the great new Charter of Fundamental Rights should be merely a so-called proclamation, thereby ensuring a bun-fight for lawyers and confusion for the citizen. He encouraged a situation to develop in which those member states keenest on integration will be able in future to go ahead without Britain, leading to our further marginalisation.

No. 10 is right to say that Nice is not the end of dear old Britain as we know it. But it should be challenged to say what Nice has done for Europe. Having myself returned from the four long days and nights in Nice, and now comparing my first-hand impressions with the official version of events, I am far from certain that the European Union really is ready for enlargement.