Check against delivery

March 2008

The last time that I spoke at Scottish Labour Conference was in 1993. I was the Youth Rep on the Scottish Exec and I was introducing the late John Smith.

So much has changed. Little did I realise that it be 15 years before I would be invited to speak again?

Little did I expect that it would ever be as the Minister for Europe and perhaps even more surprising to be doing so as the Labour MP for Eastwood.

I knew straight away that this job was Minister for Europe job as different from any other post I’ve had in Government when I received my first email of congratulations. It had four short sentences.
Congratulations on your appointment (so far so good)
I have watched the careers of all of your predecessors
You will die a slow and painful death
And be buried in a traitor’s grave.

But despite those good wishes I have enjoyed the debates on the Lisbon Treaty. I have certainly had better results in Europe than John Reid in recent months!

There has been remarkable and unimaginable change in the past 15 years. This is now the first ever Labour generation – the first Labour generation of young people some in their 20s who have no memory of a Tory Government.

And as the Prime Minister has made clear in this unprecedented political period in power at UK level and now in Opposition in Scottish Parliament we should avoid the temptation of just reflecting upon previous remarkable achievements in the belief that there will be ever a belated sense of gratitude driving contemporary political consent. People are rightly more interested in our and Europe’s response to today’s challenges than just our previous successes.

No continent has changed more than in this time than Europe.
Cheap flights, cheap mobile calls, thousands of Scots living in other EU nations.
More important than these quality of life issues has been the democracy and the EU replaced the dead hand of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.
And Europe should continue to change with a modern and reformed Turkey, a secular but predominantly Muslim nation whose destiny is within the EU.

And Scots have helped shape Europe, philosophers, academics and inventors. And today Sots still change our Continent.

Last week I was in Sarajevo and met another young Scot.
In a city that’s very name should shame the international community.
A city laid siege for four years in the 1990s

In Eastwood I have the great honour of representing the few Scots who were liberated Auschwitz and Treblinka.
A previous generation declared “Never Again”
But our generation, under a previous Government failed to act in the face of the ethnic slaughter in our own continent. And when did finally act Alex Salmond infamously described NATOs actions as “unpardonable folly”.

I met a young Scot from Balloch who is even today helping to identify the DNA remains from mass graves caused by the combination of violent action of ethnic hatred and inexcusable inaction of the international community. That experience has changed Europe forever. Those nations want to join the EU. But Never Again is – it is a solemn commitment and we should declare Future generations will never again tolerate genocide on our doorstep?

Because Europe remains a means to deliver on our great causes.
Issues come and issues go but great causes endure.

Think back to the day and reasons you joined the Labour Party.

Whether the personal experiences of generational poverty or
the genuine anger about the desperate need for a better world.

Despite real progress many of the reasons that brought us to our political convictions remain today. And in each of these Europe is a unique force for good in the globe.

Nearly 500 million people
The Governments and peoples of 27 countries working together

And the challenges facing the next generation of Europeans lie beyond Europe’s borders.
In a previous era Europe colonised the world. Now the rest of the world will transform Europe.
Climate insecurity, economies of the emerging powers, migration and international crime.

That is why the debate on Europe is so important even if it sometimes toxic and often ill informed.

The Tories are more isolationist than at any time in their history.
It is as if the North Sea and the Channel were put there to expressly to protect us from the rest of the world when in fact these shallow shores challenge us to link up with what is around us.

But sections of the Tory Party indistinguishable from UKIP.
The Coalition against Europe’s Lisbon Treaty was British Conservative Party, The French Party for Hunting, various unreconstructed Communist parties and The Dutch Animals Party.

There was one other member of this grand coalition – the SNP.
The SNP again found a reason to back the Tories.

And there is a fault line in the SNP policy in Europe.
Scotland is a member of the EU because we are a member of the UK. It is the UK that is the Member State.
No EU member has ever split apart. But if Scotland did the rest of the UK would remain the Member of the EU.
The European Fisheries Commissioner has said that if Scotland became independent then “legally speaking, the continuation of the membership would remain with the rest of the UK – less Scotland. …Scotland would have to reapply for EU membership.”

Scotland is unique active member of a Double Union that of the United Kingdom and of the EU. Scotland draws strength, gains power and exerts influence through this double Union.

Walking out on one will see us ejected from the other.
In truth the SNP glib slogan of Independence in Europe is a policy of Separation from Europe.

The Tories believe most of our problems caused by Europe. While the SNP see everything that is wrong with the Scotland as being the fault of the UK.

Because confident parties look outwards.
We have always believed in the solidarity amongst peoples and amongst nations. That is also a great and enduring cause that is worth standing for.
We should do so with continued confidence and renewed energy.