Lord Tugendhat (Con)

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak after the noble Baroness, whose service in Brussels was so distinguished and whose experience of the Commission is so much more recent than mine. I believe that this report has the potential to transform British politics. If the reset is successful, it will set us on a path to creating a new relationship with the EU that marks a break with the past and reflects the realities of the present, a relationship that has a life of its own and is not a road to something else, a relationship that will evolve in response to the needs and interests of the two parties, not in accordance with some predetermined and underlying plan. As it progresses, so its ambitions can increase, and the sooner the better. This is vital and in the national interest. On the one hand, in a threatening and uncertain world, our defence and security interests are intimately bound up with those of our EU neighbours. On the other, the EU, one of the world’s three great trading blocs and the one nearest to us, is by far our largest trading partner. Yet there are those in this country who are so obsessed with the Brexit battles that instead of looking for a new beginning, they present any change in the situation as a plot to subvert the result of the Brexit referendum. We must move on from that attitude. As I said in a debate a few weeks ago, I believe the policy being pursued by the Government, on which this report makes a number of helpful suggestions, is on the right path—by which I mean the pursuit of agreements with the EU on a range of specific and often technical issues that create a balance of tangible benefits for both sides. If the two sides can do that successfully, it will create a habit of co-operation on the basis of which the new relationship can be built. This report is a constructive contribution to that end; I just hope that the EU will be able to respond in the same spirit. Its own agenda is so full, and its recent record of reaching the internal consensus required to carry forward difficult ventures is not encouraging. The question is: can it, as well as we, rise to the challenge of our times? Will it shake the hand that the Government are extending?