You £ 7 billion failure
Cameron accuses Blair of surrendering to the French over EU rebate
DAVID Cameron accused Tony Blair of an abject surrender on Europe yesterday, claiming it will see Britain sacrificing £ 2billion a year from the EU rebate.
In rowdy scenes in the Commons, the new Tory leader said the Prime Minister had failed to meet any of the objectives he had set before last week’s marathon negotiations on the EU’s new budget.
In particular, Mr Blair had broken clear pledges that there would be no talks on our £3billion rebate without far-reaching reform of the EU’s bloated farm subsidies. Mr Cameron stressed that the small print of the deal reveals that within a few years we will be surrendering £2billion a year from our rebate.
To loud cheers from the Tory benches, he said it was little surprise that the Prime Minister had failed to consult the Chancellor before signing the agreement.
An indignant Mr Blair hit back by accusing the Conservatives of supporting the decision to expand the EU to include former Warsaw Pact countries – but then refusing to foot the bill for this enlargement.
Clearly rattled by the criticism, he also resorted to tried and tested tactics of branding the Conservatives anti-European. ‘One thing is very obvious from this debate – Euroscepticism is alive and well in the Tory Party,’ he declared.
The clashes came as Mr Blair delivered a statement to the Commons on his dramatic climbdown at last week’s EU summit.
Under the deal, Britain agreed to slash our rebate by a total of £ 7.2billion between 2007- 13 – an average of just over £ 1billion a year.
But Mr Blair failed to secure any reform of farm subsidies from the French and had to make do with the promise of a ‘review’ of the system in 2008 – when France will hold the rotating presidency of the EU.
It also emerged yesterday that the cuts in our rebate will increase gradually over the seven years covered by the Budget.
The rebate will remain untouched in 2007 and 2008 before the first cut of £500million is made in 2009. In 2010 the rebate will be slashed by around £1.5billion, rising to £2billion by 2013. Mr Cameron warned that this meant the £2billion figure will now be the ‘ baseline from which we will negotiate’ when the EU starts talks on its next budget.
The Tory leader said Mr Blair had broken clear promises that there would be no movement on our rebate without reform of farm subsidies in return.
‘What has happened is that the farm subsidies remain and £7billion of the rebate has been negotiated away. If this was always the Government’s plan, why wasn’t any reduction of the rebate in the Chancellor’s pre- Budget statement?’ he demanded.
‘Why did you give up £7billion for next to nothing? How is the Chancellor going to pay for it – more taxes, more borrowing or cuts in spending? Which is it?’ Mr Cameron also seized on reports of Mr Brown’s dismay at a deal on which he was not even consulted.
‘ Normally it’s the Chancellor who doesn’t tell the Prime Minister what’s in the Budget. This time the Prime Minister didn’t tell the Chancellor,’ said Mr Cameron. A furious Mr Blair insisted the deal was vital to help the EU’s newest members. He also tried to deflect criticism by arguing that the French contribution to the EU budget would rise by 124 per cent under the deal, while Britain’s only rose by 60 per cent.
‘You are in favour of enlargement but refuse to follow it through,’ he said. ‘ The consequences of that position is that you are not exercising leadership. You are abdicating leadership.
‘If we support and drive through a policy of ending the post- war division of Europe, we have to be ready to accept our fair share of the costs.’
He also taunted the Tories over their decision to quit the main conservative grouping in the European Parliament, a move which will see them sitting alongside extremists including Jean Marie Le Pen’s French National Front.
But Mr Blair was further embarrassed last night when the French claimed victory and insisted the review of farm subsidies in 2008 would not lead to any changes in the Common Agriculture Policy for almost a decade.
Foreign minister Philippe DousteBlazy said: ‘ France won because the CAP will not be changed before January 1, 2014.’
Earlier, Austria – which takes over the presidency from Britain next month – said it would take a ‘ hell of a job’ to get Mr Blair’s budget deal through the European Parliament.
Gregor Woschnagg, Austria’s EU ambassador, warned: ‘Now it is up to Austria to find agreement in the European Parliament, which has much higher ambitions. It is going to be one hell of a job.’
g.wilson@dailymail.co.uk