eurealist.co.uk

National farm subsidies are no substitute for CAP shake-up

Sir: Only one thing could be worse than the Common Agricultural Policy - and that would be to have 25 separate agricultural policies, each with its own competing subsidies, each with its own protectionist measures (”Let every country subsidise its own farmers”, Andreas Whittam Smith, 13 June) . That would ultimately cost the economy, the taxpayer and the environment far more.

It’s far better to pursue further reforms of the CAP - reforms which we have already made a start on, and where we have had a significant measure of success, for the first time in thirty years.

RICHARD CORBETT MEP

(LABOUR, YORKSHIRE & THE HUMBER) LEEDS

Sir: Sir Michael Franklin asks: “Do we want subsidised French exports unfairly competing with our own farmers?” (letter, 15 June). Of course not, but there is an easy answer. Each EU member state should be free to subsidise its farmers in order to supply its home market, but produce leaving the country should be subject to an export duty so the Government recovers its subsidy and avoids “dumping”.

If subsidies were contained within national borders they would become a purely domestic issue, and therefore amenable to democratic control within each country.

DR D R COOPER

MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE

Sir: There is no better back-up for Denis MacShane’s call to start talking to Europe (Opinion, 14 June) than the sight of Tony Blair, visiting George Bush, arriving in Washington in the rain without a formal welcome and leaving in a hurry with little accomplished.

We have been used to support the Iraq debacle and divide Europe and now we are being dropped like unwanted packaging. There is a lesson here for the rampant British nationalists who think we can go it alone and drive forward using the rear-view mirror. We have a say in Europe and none in the US, and it’s time to say it.

ROY E BENNETT

HACKBRIDGE, SURREY

Sir: All these arguments as to why Britain should reduce its £3bn European rebate are persuasive, but I’m reminded of the words of the late Tommy Cooper. After moaning about losing a few shillings he’d left on the bar of a pub, he said: “It’s not the principle, it’s the money.”

ALAN CLEAVER

WINCHESTER

News from the BBC: Germany’s Federal President Horst Koehler will not sign the EU Constitution until the Federal Constitutional Court decides whether the charter conforms to Germany’s own constitution.

Although the Constitution was passed in both houses it cannot become law until the Federal President signs it. Martin Stabe the London based Germany Blogger says MP Peter Gauweiler, who opposes the treaty and wants Germany to hold a referendum on it.

edit: more background from EU observer
German president Horst Kohler has said he will not sign the bill allowing for the enabling of the EU constitution into German law until the country’s highest court has ruled on a complaint by a centre-right MP.

This means that ratification by the EU’s largest member state is likely to be delayed for months as the court deliberates the decision, but also soon enters into the summer break.

MP Peter Gauweiler brought his complaint to the constitutional court in May arguing that the EU constitution oversteps the boundaries that the German charter provides for the integration of state institutions in the EU.

Mr Gauweiler, a member of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, also claims that the German parliament cannot give more rights to the EU than it has itself and is arguing that the constitution should be put to a referendum in Germany.