THE EU should work better, Julie Girling, a Conservative member of the European Parliament for the South West of England, told members of the European Movement Tamar Branch at a meeting in Gunnislake last week.

But Ms Girling said that leaving the EU would not be good for Britain. Instead we should work with other countries who share our views to make it serve the interests of its members more efficiently and less intrusively.

Reform is possible and is already happening, she stressed. She gave the example of the Common Agricultural Policy, which has for long been an object of criticism for Britain. Ten years ago payments to farmers accounted for 44 % of the EU budget. Now that has come down to 36 per cent, and it will continue to fall. She stressed, however, that agricultural subsidies will always be necessary. Without subsidies, whether from the EU or from our own government, dairy farmers would be unable to survive in the UK, for instance. Another example of successful reform was the Common Fisheries Policy: when the new fisheries policy comes into force in 2014 we shall no longer see the hated spectacle of catches being dumped back in the sea.

Julie Girling acknowledged that European institutions, not just the EU, are unpopular with many people, particularly those nearing or above retirement age. She argued that more must be done to explain the value of the single market, with its huge benefits to British businesses and to the prosperity of all of us, and the European Convention on Human Rights, which Britain helped to draw up and was one of the first countries to embrace, well before the EU had come into existence. And more should be done to counter the myths, such as the view that the EU is unaffordably expensive.

Ms Girling said it was not, and the net cost was repaid many times over by the many advantages of membership.

The meeting was held at the Tamar Valley Centre in Gunnislake, an educational centre built with the help of the EU's structural funds.