Like many here, the idea of a coalition with the Tories goes rather against the grain for me. What convinced me to at least give the ‘new politics’ a chance was not the thought of David Cameron in Number 10 (and certainly not the idea of Boy George in Number 11), but the amount of positive inclusions in the coalition agreement.
Mark Pack has done a good job, here on LDV, of going through the agreement line by line. There is much for us to be happy about. What still causes me concern, however, is the amount that is not covered.
Of course no cross-party agreement, especially not one drawn up on such a tight post-election timetable, could realistically attempt to cover every political issue the new government will face over five years. Events, dear boy, will always present themselves. How the government then responds to them and whether this is satisfactory to all sections of the coalition will depend very much of communication. Nick Clegg’s desire for the grassroots left of the party to have a figurehead as deputy leader gives me some hope on our side, even if Cameron’s squeeze of the 1922 Committee will worry our ‘partners’.
But not everything that will happen in the coming years is unknown. There are some things already in the diary but not in the agreement. This includes one in particular that worries me, given its sensitivity for both governing parties. I am thinking of the end of the temporary restrictions for immigration from the A8 and A2 EU accession states.
In May 2004, the EU expanded to include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. These became known as the A8 countries. In January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined them and became known as the A2 countries.
New Labour negotiated a temporary arrangement in each case to soften the blow to the UK. Rather than having an honest debate in our country about the mutual benefits of the free movement of peoples around Europe, they fudged the issue – at once signing up to the European agenda, but with temporary restrictions for those coming to the UK.
Personally, I think there are real problems with someone having the right to turn up, the right to work and the right to leave – but no rights for any other situation, for example, if you get the sack. Having talked to many voluntary organisations and others trying to deal with the fallout in recent years, I am convinced this is not fair or workable.
And the problems reach further than you may think, especially since most homeless charities these days are dependent upon government funds in order to provide services for the ‘statutory homeless’, which means effectively ‘on the council house waiting list’. However, this group have no entitlement to council housing. Consequently, there are homeless charities that in some circumstances have to turn people away, back onto the streets, on the basis of their nationality.
In the last year or two, the Department of Communities and Local Government and the independent (aka quango) Homeless Link have been beginning to seriously address these issues. And there is some hope we might make the current system fairer. For example, by letting A8 and A2 nationals use their equivalent to NI contributions in other EU countries to claim some Job Seekers Allowance here (as they are theoretically entitled to).
The big issue though will be what happens when these temporary arrangements end. This is not some vague possibility. It will happen for A8 nationals on 31 May 2011 and for A2 nationals on 31 December 2011. It is an issue the coalition government will have to deal with in one year’s time.
The last government already extended the arrangements for A8 nationals once, and as far as I understand a further extension is not legally an option. So will these temporary restrictions end and the full rights and freedoms of EU citizenship be extended to A8 and A2 nationals?
There is a subtle but important question underlying this. Is the current situation deemed to be the one on the ground, where these restrictions are in place – or is it the long-term agreement we have entered into? If it is the latter then we are simply fulfilling our commitment. If it is the former, then ending these restrictions could well be seen as a fundamental relinquishing of control over our borders to the EU. In that case, the coalition agreement means we have signed up to a referendum before any change can take place.
I very much take the first view. These ten countries are members of the EU and whatever temporary measures we adopt to phase in their rights of citizenship, those rights are ultimately theirs. It is a commitment we have entered into as a nation. However, I am not confident all of those sitting on government benches will share this view.
Disagreements on Europe will be an issue for this coalition at some point, and events may well dictate. But this is one event we can prepare for.
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6 Comments
Did you hear Simon Hughes in the HoC a few weeks ago in the Europe debate? The Tories won’t get any resistance from him as far as immigration from new member states is concerned.
Europe is the problem for the coalition. Principally because we have no strategy for growth. Such a strategy can only be formulated on a Europe-wide basis. The Eurozone members have no real strategy for growth either, apart from yet further drastic devaluation of the euro against the dollar (and thus against sterling to a degree). But they are at least in a structure that forces them, however inadequately, to co-ordinate their efforts and the overwhelming probability is that this will lead, over the next few years, to much tighter arrangements to preserve their interests, whether on a German monetarist or French Keynesian model, or some fudge between the two. We are now as a Nation and as a Party set upon a course towards ever greater detachment from this process. Yet our fate is largely in their hands because without their success in achieving growth all our government’s necessary plans to re-balance our economy will come to nothing.
The ONLY important thing is for the UK to provide at least the possibility of meaningful employment for its citizens. The welfare of non-UK citizens is a subordinate issue. All issues relating to the influx of EU workers should be viewed through this prism. Rather than import labour from the EU, the default position should be be train UK workers to do the jobs required.
Whatever is required to operate with the UK being first consideration, is what should be done. Otherwise you cannot either control immigration into the country or re-establish the social contract on a viable foundation. UK workers = UK taxes -= UK services.
Aside from funding training for UK citizens, which the government already does, there is nothing they can do here. The EU treaties prohibit active discrimination against the citizens of other member nations.
Freedom of movement within the EU is a fundamental right of all EU citizens. No “control” is allowed. You can go to any EU nation and get a job there, and they can do the same thing here.
“You can go to any EU nation and get a job there, and they can do the same thing here.”
Only because of a (IMO) very open interpretation of the treaty. The treaty provision allows you to move to an EU country to accept offers of employment made and carry it out. IIRC the ECJ has held that you can move to another EU country to look for work but I think that could be altered without contravening the treaty.
Thank you all for your comments. Some interesting points about the context of this issue.
By way of an update, the government has responded to a written question by Lord Roberts of Llandudno, confirming that the Workers Registration Scheme (for A8 nationals) will end on 30 April 2011. That will end most of the situation described in my piece above.
The scheme for A2 nationals could, at least in theory, be extended until the end of 2013, ‘in the event of a serious disturbance to the labour market’. I will continue my work at the House of Lords to have Job Centre staff properly trained and informed on the complexities of entitlements for EU nationals, to avoid existing difficulties pushing more people needlessly into destitution, onto the streets.
‘The Government will apply transitional controls as a matter of course in the future for all new EU member states’, they tell us. So I will be putting together some sort of report on these matters in the current system to avoid their repetition should Turkey or any other country join the EU in the near future.