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“The Rose Tinted Glasses of Lord Haskins
by Eurealist at 11:28AM (BST) on May 2, 2005 | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Christopher HASKINS, (Board member), Britain in Europe,

Not slow to miss an opportunity to don his rose coloured spectacles, Lord Christopher Haskins tells us in a letter to the Times “May 1, marks the first anniversary of the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 members”.

“Preceding this event, the British public faced a barrage of tabloid scaremongering over the threat of a flood of immigration. Apparently, Britain stood to gain nothing from this event but a horde of benefit scroungers and health tourists”.

Haskins speaking for the fat cats club, otherwise known as “Britain In Europe” says that all this scaremongering has one year proven to be unfounded.

“the outcome is the opposite. British business has benefited from skilled migrant workers who have plugged gaps in a variety of sectors. Of those who arrived last year 83 per cent are 18-34 years old. They contribute to our economy — around £240 million from May to December 2004, according to the Home Office. Furthermore, enlargement of the EU is already building political stability in Eastern Europe and providing new markets for British firms”

Which may or may not be true, depending on whether you believe anything emanating from either this government or the self interested BIE group, both have been known to put a gloss on presentation in the past.

Haskins does not of course offer his view on the reverse side of the debate which is captured by the furore surrounding the EU proposal to open the market in services. 1000s of people took to the streets in Brussels to demonstrate in favour of a Europe’s Social Model. They feel it will be undermined by cheap service labour from the east – made possible by such a services directive. Big business as the members of BIE epitomise might well be happy with an influx of workers who are willing to take what jobs they can in Britain, because it is better than the options that may have at home, but there is also the fact that this large pool of cheap labour from the east can undermine jobs wages and conditions in Britain France and Germany, as in the case of Siemens, when large companies threatened to move eastwards, their employees are forced to agreed to freeze wages.

There is also the point that Spain has recently legitimised 1 million plus illegal immigrants, these people will also have now the legal right to come to Britain; that is not to say they all will, perhaps not many at all. But the decision by the Spanish government to solve its illegal immigrant problem by giving them all amnesty, has been passed onto the rest of the countries because we now cannot stop those people from other EU countries coming to this country, this was not a choice of the British government the had no say in the matter.

In any case not all view the EU through rose tinted spectacles as is evidenced in Poland when hundreds of fishermen celebrated the anniversary by catching cod in defiance of a seasonal EU ban. PAP news agency quoted fishermen’s union leader Grzegorz Halubek saying after up to 500 boats sailed out into the Baltic.

“Our people are more afraid of hunger than any sanctions.”

The crews were complaining in particular about what they saw as discrimination in limits on cod fishing between the western Baltic, home to fleets from older EU members like Denmark and Germany, and eastern areas where Polish boats operate.

Enlargement has brought with it feelings of resentment in some quarters. Germany and France particularly resent the low corporate tax rates in east European countries - the rates were lowered just before joining. This prompted recriminations by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder but then a slashing of Germany’s own corporate tax from 25 to 19 per cent, in order to compete with the new member states.

So even if Haskins is right he has only told half the story, which is much more complicated than he would like us to believe. But the real point of Hasking letter is reached in the final paragraph when he makes a claim for the EU Constitution;

“But the draft constitutional treaty is needed to make enlargement more successful. Without reform of institutions and decision-making processes there is a danger that the dynamic benefits of enlargement will be jeopardised by stultifying political bureaucracy. The treaty will provide solid foundations for the new Europe”

Yes the Constitution will provide solid foundations for a new EU, but is it an EU we want to be part of?

Do we want our government to be an unelected and unaccountable Eurocratic nightmare in Brussels? A government that is already costing billions each year, a cost that is set to double in the next two years.

Big business and BIE of course are grateful to the EU, it is that organisation which has set the tax rules which will cost the British treasury upwards of 20 Billion pounds in back corporate taxes. Because the EU says international companies must be able to claim tax relief on any losses their overseas subsidiaries make against any profit they make in Britain, but the British government cannot claim tax on any profits those companies make overseas. It is the EU which says the British government may not stop people from other member states coming here, yet allows Spain to pass on their illegal immigration problem to the rest of us.

When we go to the polls on Thursday it is best to place our vote with the knowledge that which ever party forms the next government, they will not be able to do anything about the real problems facing this country. We are in effect electing a group of super social workers who individually will help their constituents in any way they can, but they will be impotent against the overarching rules of the EU. The one thing that will make this situation worse than it already is, would be to ratify the EU Constitution that will casing in stone all the problems of the Union, and making our own elected Members of Parliament even less relevant they already are.