The European Union

Continuing the series on conservative reform.

Britain's relationship with the European Union remains an uneasy political subject, but is nevertheless a subject conservatives should be taking seriously - and discussing with vigour. Whilst it is important to move away from a narrow understanding of what issues are important, our relationship with the EU is at the heart of the conservative project's central objectives - more open and accountable government, appropriate subsidiarity between local and national politics, and the elimination of poorly targeted regulation wherever found.

The role of national governments

On examining the history of the EU, the most obvious development has been the 'salami-slicing' of powers away from national governments and in the direction of the EU and its executive branch, the Commission. In a manner equivalent to a Gordon Brown tax increase, this has happened gradually, and through stealth, without the proper consultation of the public or even a political discussion in Westminster of the consequences. Lest I bore my kind readers with too much detail, I will point to a specific example to illustrate the problem of decisions being made too far away from the centres of their impact.

Take the European Working Time Directive, implemented into British law in 1998. Ostensibly noble, the legislation aims to protect Eumropeans by maximising the number of hours they can work in a week, refining the use of night time work, ensuring rest break entitlements and paid leave annual entitlements. In practice, however, the results have been disastrous, not only for British businesses, but for organisations such as the NHS where a natural first priority is the staffing of patient wards at all different times of the day. In short, it is has been a mischief maker.

Whilst most people would agree that rights and responsibilities are involved in the employer/employee relationship, we must put an end to the EU's 'one size fits all' approach to legislation. Is it right that a group of 27 EU Commissioners and its rubber-stamping Parliament should be making such monolithic decisions on employment law, without regard to the unique working histories and cultures of each of the different member states? It is self-evident that certain matters should be left to national governments to legislate on, and only where individual contractual arragements or more localised employment laws are not possible to meet specific needs.

Policy

The other big concern we should address is the EU Budget and how it is allocated.

We have to question the value to the UK taxpayer, other Europeans, and the rest of the world, of the Common Agricultural Policy. Whilst the CAP claims to support vulnerable European farmers, what it actually does is subsidise comfortable French farmers and large agri-business. Furthermore, the policy is not only wasteful, it is manifestly immoral, keeping African farmers poor through the erection of extortionate import tariffs and subdising European exports leading to the dumping of European products on world markets.

In likewise fashion, we have to question the value of the Common Fisheries Policy. Whilst there is a clear need for the proper regulation of Europe's limited fishing stock, the present regime has had the opposite effect to that intended - summed up in no better way than the sight of dead fish being thrown back into the sea by European fisherman to satisfy EU fishing quotas. Add to that the contrasting seriousness with which some of the member states regard enforcement, (Britain and Spain being chief examples of the different approaches taken), and you have a recipe for anarchy and destruction in our waters.

The Conservative vision of the European Union

I am in favour of Britain's continued membership of the EU. In order to make it work, however, we must not be afraid to criticise where the European Project not only undermines our basic principles of government but does much harm in fields of policy. David Cameron's courageous decision to join a new political grouping within the European Parliament is an encouraging first step. It a sign that the Conservative Party are committed to an EU that represents a voluntary coalition of independent nation states, rather than a project for full political integration, and an EU that will shake off the shackles of special interests and focus instead on genuinely shared objectives concerning the common good.