Kevin Rowan column

Dec 5 2005 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

Much has been made of the Prime Minister's decision to try to negotiate a change in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy in return for a reduction in the UK's rebate from the Union.

There appears to be little chance of there being change in the former, although the case for it is clear, while Tony Blair seems to have agreed a concession that will allow the rebate to be cancelled in the new EU member states desperate for structural funds to support economic development.

I don't often find myself leaping to the PM's defence, but this, to me, is a sound move on behalf of the UK, giving up around £1bn if the estimates and speculation are correct; it is disappointing that the French in particular, are determined to block any reform of CAP, on which the EU spends 40% of its budget.

We do need to put these figures into some kind of perspective. It isn't how much money is involved, as much as what is done with it. I've always believed the EU, among other things, can be a powerful economic collective with the capacity to challenge poverty, not just in Europe, but globally.

Next Saturday is the third MakePovertyHistory "white band" day. There are still 1.3 billion people living in severe poverty, 800 million do not get enough food, a further 500 million are chronically malnourished and 1.2 billion live without access to safe drinking water. Effective debt relief to these countries would cost $5.5bn, about what it cost to build Euro Disney.

At the same time every farmer in the European Union receives $2 per day for each cow they own. I've recently visited Sierra Leone, there $2 a day would feed a family.

This Prime Minister's "concessions" are about seeking to build the economies of some of our key trading partners of the future - a development that will, in the medium and longer term, lead to increases in our own economic activity. The efforts to secure reform of the CAP were based on the same motivation.

Only by redistributing wealth more evenly around the globe will we create a sustainable economy which will secure long term prosperity for all. Extremes of inequality will only continue to shame the developed world and ensure a degree of instability.

So, rather than a concession, the greater distribution of the UK's wealth is an investment in future trade. It is disgraceful that other parts of the EU still think it preferable to keep a cow alive while billions of people starve in the developing world.