Unlike the three main parties, the Liberal Party opposed the Maastricht Treaty. We believe that the European Union (EU) now being built will be a centralised and undemocratic super-state. The Liberals want a fully democratic and devolved EU concentrating on issues such as the environment and peacemaking rather than on economics: a "Commonwealth of Europe", to include all of Europe and not just the present EU.
We reject the concept of a single economy as impractical and dangerous. European Monetary Union entails the "harmonisation" of indirect taxes such as VAT (almost certain to lead eventually to VAT on food, books and children's clothes), the "convergence" of the economies of member states and the creation of a European Central Bank not subject to democratic control and with the primary objective of low inflation.
This means that the whole of the EU would be functioning as a single, centralised economy. Liberals warn of the dangers of this and the possible consequences in terms of unemployment.
The moves towards a single economy put up barriers to the new democracies of Eastern Europe and against developing countries. The Commonwealth we propose would be able to be more open.
The European Parliament should be the main decision making body with the Commission responsible to it. By clearly defining the powers to be exercised at European level a truly democratic structure is possible. It is the vagueness of the Maastricht Treaty which leads to decisions being negotiated between governments rather than being made by the European Parliament.
The disastrous effects of the Common Agriculture and Fisheries policies show the problems of centralised decision making. The cost is high, there is fraud on a huge scale, farmers are growing crops for subsidies rather than to meet real demand and there are mountains of surplus food.
We believe that the Common Agricultural Policy should be replaced by a simpler and cheaper scheme aiming to subsidise organic farming, encourage less intensive methods of animal husbandry and help farmers to cope with the short term problems caused by rapidly changing market conditions.
We also believe that there is an urgent need for replacement of the Common Fisheries Policy and advocate a system based on fishing zones.