John Maples: EU must foster competitiveness

The senior Conservative MP was speaking in Brussels at an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He criticised the way the EU had responded to the challenges of integrating the countries of central and eastern Europe.

He said: "It is now 10 years since the fall of the wall but none of these countries is yet a member.

"We must put that right and put that right soon."

Mr Maples said the EU under European Commission President Romano Prodi was "obsessed with integration and harmonisation".

He added: "If it is not careful it risks creating a new Iron Curtain of protectionism around the whole of Europe, isolating the EU from the global market and all the potential benefit that brings.

"Costly harmonisation regulation will lead to an increasingly uncompetitive and inward-looking Europe.

Romano Prodi: "Obsessed with integration"

"Deep integration, the creation of a United States of Europe, may have been possible with six members - it would be very difficult with 15 but it is impossible with 25.

"One size will not fit all.

"Instead the EU must concentrate on fostering competitiveness. That means further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and, across the range of European industries, it means expanding free trade,