Does Labour have an EU policy?

The Labour Party conference has provided a belated opportunity to focus on the opposition party’s policies, and our interest naturally gravitated towards what Eds Milliband and Balls would have to say on the UK’s relations with the EU, and crucially their views on the burning issue of the eurozone crisis.

An early indication of Labour’s attitude towards the EU in opposition came from Lord Maurice Glassman (pictured), tasked by Miliband to develop a new intellectual framework for the Labour Party. Glassman’s ‘Blue Labour’ critique took aim at many targets (with no quarter given), including the EU, in particular its dominating legalistic institutions (a criticism we share) and the free movement of people and capital (which we think on the whole has benefited the people of Europe).

Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and other key Labour players have been busy developing this argument at party conference, in particular emphasising they had been wrong to allow unhindered access to the UK’s labour market to the eastern Europe accession countries in 2004. In an interview with Sky News, Miliband said: “We got it wrong in a number of respects, including underestimating the level of immigration from Poland, which had a big effect on people in Britain”, while Hazel Blears claimed that Eastern Europeans claiming generous UK benefits “creates a real sense of grievance and justifiably so” (even if research has shown immigrants are less likely than natives to receive state benefits or tax credits).

On the eurozone crisis, shadow Chancellor Ed Balls somewhat bizarrely argued (15 mins in) that Greece, the country at the centre of the problems did not have a debt problem:

“The crisis in Greece is fundamentally caused by the euro, an assumption about the interest rate which has turned out not to prevail… its not a crisis caused by debt, it’s caused by a liquidity crisis caused by a global financial crisis and a failure of the eurozone to act.”

While we certainly echo that the euro is a major problem, Balls appeared somewhat confused on the nature of this crisis. In fact, he may well find himself in a minority of one if he genuinely believes Greece is facing a liquidity rather than a solvency crisis. The markets (and increasing numbers of eurozone policymakers) know that Greece cannot sustain its debt burden in the long term, and are waiting for the inevitable default, something Balls did not mention.

Finally, in terms of gauging Labour’s general approach to EU issues in opposition, Miliband broadly backed the coalition government’s approach, saying that:

"We want a Europe that works for people in this country and I think that's the most important thing… let's get stuck in, let's engage and let's get Europe to grow. That's the priority, not referenda or constitutional changes or any of that stuff.”

While the reflection and internal debate is very welcome, as the Spectator’s Coffee House blog notes, “despite the interventions from Miliband and Balls, the party is bereft of a policy in this area”. And anyone wanting to get an idea of the Labour party's vision for Europe would have been disappointed by Miliband’s leader’s speech this afternoon, which barely referenced the EU or the eurozone. In fairness, Labour's Shadow Europe Minister Wayne David did say some encouraging things at a recent Open Europe event on EU justice and home affairs, which suggested he would press the Government on this issue, although again, he was vague on what specifically a Labour government would do. David has recently also gone pretty hard on the proposed increases to the EU budget.

Needless to say, given the crucial and fast-moving nature of events currently unfolding in Europe, it is vital we have an opposition that sharpens its focus and is able to hold the government to account.

We have a feeling that it's in the area of free movement of people and workers that Labour could face it's greatest temptation to move in a more populist direction...

Would you trust this Miliband?

With the election only two weeks away now the country has turned poll-crazy as we rate the stars, ahem, politicians with every twist and turn of the election horse track.

The latest intrigue from the poll-vine comes from an interesting study released in yesterday’s FT, by market research firm Harris International. It reveals that David Miliband is one of the least trusted politicians in the UK, with a whopping 38 percent of people saying that they ‘distrust’ him in contrast to the scant 12 percent who ‘trust’ him.

The surprise must come as quite a blow to Labour’s wonder child, and to the party who widely tip him for future leadership. The question remains, what has Miliband done to upset the voters?

We think this poll shows that the public remember oh too well the failed promises that Miliband, and the Labour party, have offered and taken away from us over the years.

In his role as Foreign Minister, Miliband promised to put an end to the UK’s role in overseas torture cases, but instead ended up publishing guidance as to how to interview detainees overseas. He also presided over the financial scandal that saw the Foreign and Commonwealth Office lose vast sums of cash after the budget was left unprotected from exchange rate changes.

But in our view the most fundamental breach of trust was the reneged promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Miliband was at the head of the party in the writing of New Labours' election manifestos which, as we well remember, promised us a referendum on a European Union Constitution. Strike 1 - the Constitution came and went without a referendum in the UK. Strike 2 – the identical Lisbon Treaty came and arrived without a referendum.

By also leading the defence on the Treaty in the Commons (which a clear majority of the British people didn't want) Miliband is very much synonymous with the whole insult to democracy that the Lisbon episode involved. It’s no wonder then that the people don’t trust him.

Out there in eurospace

Foreign Secretary David Miliband appeared before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee this afternoon to discuss developments in the EU, ahead of the formal six-monthly European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday this week.

Although Foreign Ministers usually attend these meetings, the Lisbon Treaty states that it should only be EU heads of state. The Swedish EU Presidency, on the advice of the legal service for the Council, according to Miliband, had decided that Foreign Ministers will not be invited, which has put some noses out of joint. Thanks to Lisbon, EU Foreign Ministers are no longer welcome but instead EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton gets a seat.

However, Miliband added that the Treaty still allows for heads of state to bring along a minister when the agenda requires it, and that EU leaders will have a discussion over dinner about "whether the Treaty means what it says", with regards to whether or not foreign ministers may be allowed to attend these meetings in future. What a bizarre thing to say - what do we do if they find the Treaty does not "mean what it says"? That goes down as another admission from the Government that the text is indeed highly ambiguous and that, as we argued, MPs were effectively signing a blank cheque when they agreed it.

Miliband also revealed that, although the final outline and recruitment policy of the new European External Action Service, EEAS, is still to be decided (another of Lisbon's 'unanswered questions), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office anticipates that it will be contributing 18-25 staff to the new EU institution.

You may remember back in October, a document from the Swedish EU Presidency on the outline of the EEAS. This stated that staff from Member States should represent at least one third of staff at the senior level, including diplomatics in delegations - with people keen to keep in mind a geographic balance for those working in the new institution. The rest of the staff would be taken from the Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council.

Since it has been suggested that the size of the EEAS could reach anything between 6,000 and 8,000, it is not quite clear how those two ideas tally. Unless the UK will be sending a bloc of staff way below the number which other member states are sending, it may turn out that long-time eurocrats (the same ones striking for a payrise next week) may make up the bulk of the staff in the EEAS after all.

There were also some Select Committee questions regarding the appointment of Cathy Ashton, and the role of the new EU Foreign Minister, specifically in relation to the EEAS. One MP pointed out that it was a rather strange message to send, for Ashton to have her office in the Commission building, when the nature of the job was supposed to be 'intergovernmental', i.e. to represent the foreign policy of all 27 member states.

Asked this very question recently, Ashton said she was staying in her office in the Commission simply because she knows where the coffee is. Hmm.

Conservative MP for Wells David Heathcoat-Amory pointed out that as a sui generis institution, without precedent, it is extremely unclear where the lines of responsibility for the EEAS are, and it sits in some kind of limbo-like "euro-space" between the Council and Commission.

Indeed. The problem with this brand new institution, which the EU has made clear will become a seperate institution in its own right, with its own budget (£45 billion over 3 years, according to Javier Solana), is that for the very first time it is an institution which seems to straddle both the Commission and the Council - blurring the lines between the intergovernmental and the supranational if you like. In this sense it will be a real "EU foreign office" - with EU diplomats for the first time, instead of mere European Commission 'delegates' and representatives abroad. They will supposedly speak on behalf of the EU as a whole, as opposed to representing just the Commission.

How will that work in practice? It seems Miliband and even Ashton aren't too sure about that. We left the Select Committee hearing none the wiser.

Is the EU 'Fit for Purpose'?

Open Europe was in attendance at a debate on Monday night entitled "An EU 'Fit for Purpose' in the Global age", where the speakers, including Foreign Secretary David Miliband, offered their thoughts on policy options for the EU post-2009.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch Europe Minister, said that "When Eurobarometer asks people in Europe, do you support the idea of Europe, the highest response, yes responses, is in the Netherlands, but this is on an abstract level. As soon as you go to the nitty gritty, you will see that the Dutch have become quite eurosceptical in general about the instruments of Europe, about the workings of Europe, ecetera. So what happens is that when talking about Europe, you immediately talk about the institutions, travelling from Brussels to Strasbourg and all sorts of other nonsense that should have been taken off the table a long time ago."

Ending the travelling circus certainly makes sense, but it would be interesting to know what Mr. Timmersmans is referring to when he says "other nonsense"...

Sir Stephen Wall, Britain's former Permanent Representative to the EU, went on to talk about financial regulation and the report by former Bank of France Governor Jacques de Larosiere. Interestingly he said that, "If you look at the de Larosiere report on regulation, it's a rather timid document, but the Commission document on the back of it is already proposing to go further."

He went on to talk about the financial crisis and the eurozone, saying, "It seems to me that for political and economic reasons, the eurozone cannot and will not be allowed to fail. If for the first time, the eurozone countries are compelled actually to make very large financial transfers from richer to poorer...then that will have big political consequences I believe in terms of political management of the eurozone."

The Foreign Secretary also welcomed the de Larosiere report, and described it as an "important contribution to the debate and a useful basis for further discussions on improving supervision and regulation in Europe. He [de Larosiere] has proposed a new independent European early warning body...a single body to become the source of technical financial rules with a clear mandate to iron out national divergences and closer integration and consolidation of EU financial structures."

He also warned that the European project was under "massive scrutiny as a result of the economic crisis. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Europe's core values and institutions are therefore going to be tested by this economic crisis in ways that perhaps we haven't fully come to appreciate."

"Reform of the European Union, which involves by definition critique of the European Union, should be what pro-Europeans do."

"I think that the economic crisis is a test, not just a policy test, but it is a political test for eurosceptics and for europhiles in Britain. To eurosceptics, to people who fear 'too much Europe', who argue that the European Union should be a single market or a trading bloc and no more, I would have a simple message. Instead of beating up on the straw man of the federal state, help Europe defend itself against the real threat that it faces, for example the fragmentation of the single market which would have a devestating effect on the British economy."

"...You cannot be in favour of the single market but against the very institutions that preserve the rules of the game on which we all depend. That is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the eurosceptic position that says it wants the benefits of the single market but thinks that the European Commission is too powerful. Over the next year, we need to defend the political institutions in Europe if we want to maintain our economic freedom."

Actually, this seems to be a fundamental contradiction at the heart of David Miliband's argument. To be "pro-Europe", you should be in favour of reform of the EU and, by definition, all for critique of the EU. But in no way should this desire for reform extend to critiquing the Commission or the "political institutions of Europe".