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Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE
). –
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I regret that Prime
Minister Blair has seen fit to go and spin to journalists rather than
listen to this whole debate. When the Prime Minister spoke to us in
Brussels in June, he said that the UK Presidency wanted to resolve
difficulties with the services directive, the working time directive, and
to take forward a budget deal. Today he said exactly the same about these
very difficult issues.
At this late stage in the UK
Presidency, it seems an empty presidency. We have zero progress and
continuing uncertainty. Still no budget for 2007 and it is not only in the
accession states that this is a major concern. The UK Government proposals
would lose Scotland one billion pounds in structural funds and lose
Objective 1 funding for Wales. We have uncertainty in our rural
communities because the UK has suddenly withdrawn support for the
agricultural funding package only recently agreed. We have uncertainty,
too, about what will take the place of the now dead Constitution.
Zero progress. What a contrast
with the recent presidencies of Ireland and of Luxembourg: small,
successful, independent nations whose achievements in their six months in
office were immense and excellent examples of the independent status which
I believe would be best for Scotland and which my Welsh and Catalan
colleagues also aspire to for their countries. Zero progress, it seems,
until the December summit. It seems to me that to store up so many
difficult unresolved issues for one formal summit agenda is a recipe for
potential disaster.
In closing, may I just say that the final act of the UK
Presidency will be to chair the Fisheries Council in December. Can I make
a plea that for once – just once – the UK Government makes the survival of
Scotland’s coastal and island communities an economical and social
priority, not something to be sacrificed at the negotiating table? |
