Jon Snow, ITN
Prime Minister, from various countries there seem to be some rather despondent, even angry people leaving this Summit tonight; do you feel responsible for their frustration?
Prime Minister
No, not in any way. Four times during this Summit, we discussed the same problem; that was whether we should put a tax on oils and fats imported from abroad and also on those produced in the Community—four times! Yes, there was a great deal of repetition. We tried and succeeded in stopping it. It would have been devastating for the housewife and devastating for world trade; now some of them were very cross about that but it was absolutely right to stop it.
Jon Snow, ITN
But that was not the core of the break down was it?
Prime Minister
No, that was not but it gives you some indication when I say we repeated the whole thing four times over. The real reason for the breakdown was a different approach which they take and we take [end p1] towards financial matters. They are prepared to fudge things, they are prepared not to look at the details, not to look at the small print and they wanted to take some decision without really getting them clear; that is not our way and I simply would not have it and the two things which some of them have agreed, namely on a bloated level of agricultural spending as a baseline and also a total amount which we should spend in future; that really was not discussed at all; that is not our way.
Jon Snow, ITN
But can eleven sophisticated western European nations all be wrong and you be the only one that is right?
Prime Minister
Well, that is how we have got some measure of discipline into the Community so far. That is how we got a fair deal for Britain by going on with the actual commonsense and sound financial case. Now we shall all have to go over it again at Copenhagen because they are not prepared to run their finance soundly, they merely say “There is a problem, right it is difficult to make a sound decision, all right, have more money” —that is how they have got into this Community, these, what you call eleven sophisticated responsible men into two years supply of surplus butter, four months supply of wheat and that is the beginning of the season, a great big supply of beef, too much tobacco being produced which cannot be sold and which is in store; that is how these eleven sophisticated, responsible men have got things into in the Community and we are trying to sort it out. [end p2]
Jon Snow, ITN
Isn't the problem though, that at the end of this meeting they go away not thinking about housekeeping but wondering about your commitment to Europe?
Prime Minister
Well, that is absolutely absurd, if you are committed to something, then the sooner you get it onto a sound financial basis the better. When you think that—just take the figures—the entire European budget is 33 billion, 17 billion of that—half—goes not to farmers, not to businessmen, not to housewives, it actually goes on storing surpluses and disposing of them. That does not make any sort of sense. We have got to sort it out, they have run away from it. They ran away from it after Fontainebleau. We secured an agreement from them which we took on trust that in future the amount we spent on agriculture each year should be less than the increase in our finances. Well, they have just ignored it and they have gone over and above that amount and so they have made worse a thing which was already bad then and which they said they were going to remedy so this time we are not going to take anyone's word for it. We say it has got to be embodied in regulations which are enforcible at law. They may not like it but it is the only way to get to a sound basis.
Jon Snow, ITN
Well you are one against eleven now, how long are you prepared to hold out? [end p3]
Prime Minister
We have not been able to hold out in quite the same way as we are holding out now because it was only when we got to Fontainebleau that we got a reasonable financial agreement for Britain and that cannot be changed without our consent so that was the first time you were able to be tough and we did say to them, “Look you really must be reasonable about your expenditure” ; now three years later they have not been and three years later, after we had put up the amount we spent in 1984, they are broke again. Now we are enabled to be tough because we can now say “Look, we are not going to put up the money, I am not going to ask the British taxpayer to pay more because we are net payers to the budget, not going to ask them to pay more unless this time you are prepared to run the show on a sound responsible way and not put it all to agricultural surpluses.