Minister for Europe settles the score

Date: 24/01/02

By Laurence Frost

BRITAIN'S outspoken minister for Europe, Peter Hain, has produced a controversial scoreboard which 'marks' the European Union and its institutions out of ten on their main activities.

He says his report deliberately avoids the 'techie-speak that Eurowonks use when they want to impress but can't be bothered to explain'.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scores four out of ten because it costs €40 billion a year, makes food cost more than it should, is bureaucratic and distorts world markets. The only reason it doesn't get zero, claims Hain, is that reforms have improved it and without some subsidies rural communities would disappear.

Structural funds, the minister says, is 'a boring name, but the second biggest item of EU expenditure after the CAP'. Poorer states get more but are not winning any special favours, since 'by helping develop all of Europe's regions we make ourselves richer'. But the funds 'still aren't administered as efficiently as we would like'. 7/10

Single market: ''A' for effort and for achievement' in removing trade barriers existing 'since the first Phoenician merchant stepped ashore 2000 years ago and met some local tribesman with a big spear demanding a cut.

'There are only two things wrong with the single market: it isn't yet single, and it isn't yet a market - at least not a perfect one.' 8/10

Justice and home affairs: 'If the EU's institutions and procedures had not been in place, the response to 11 September could not have been as efficient and effective. That's why we're developing cooperation between our police forces.' Already, he says, many successful drugs busts 'are made possible by quiet and effective cooperation' between countries. 7/10

Environment: Only by cooperating with other European countries can we fight 'the most insidious of all cross-border threats' such as acid rain and global warming.

'Another point the Eurosceptics don't like much' is that environmental standards across Europe can only be raised with the help of 'our old friend qualified majority voting...the result: tough action to build a cleaner, greener Europe, in a way the member states acting alone could never achieve.' 8/10

World trade: Majority voting and a negotiating mandate for the Commission mean that 'we get what we want, quicker and better' in trade talks. This 'makes it harder for protectionists to make a deal we want hostage to their own special interests'.

The launch of a new trade round in Doha is 'the best possible response to the world economic downturn and the terrorists who attacked us all on 11 September'. 7/10

Foreign policy: 'The Community method wouldn't work here...when a corrupt president falls or a war starts, we can't sit around waiting for a Commission proposal in 12 different languages or consulting the European Parliament over what to do.' That's why foreign policy decisions are best taken unanimously by the member states. But 'an awful lot more needs doing - and delivering'. 6/10

EU institutions: The Commission is indeed a Eurocracy, but 'if you want a level playing field, you need a heavy roller'. The Council is made up of ministers who are 'accountable to their parliaments and their electorates'; MEPs are also 'at the mercy of their electorates every five years'.

All things considered, the institutional process is 'quicker than many national governments', and is far preferable to 'the previous European method of deciding things: warfare.' As for transparency, 'everything the EU is doing or planning is in the public domain - almost all of it deliberately!' 7/10

Britain's outspoken Minister for Europe, Peter Hain, has produced a controversial scoreboard which 'marks' the European Union and its institutions on their main activities.