European Union (Accessions) Bill

I congratulate my noble friend Lord Howell on these amendments because they have enabled us to have this debate. The topic gives rise to genuine concern. One of the difficulties of dealing with European Union legislation has always been to postulate amendments in terms of one’s own domestic legislation when all the while you are affecting treaty obligations. That has been a difficulty since 1972, so I am not deeply upset about the flawed nature of these amendments. They serve the exact purpose, which is to enable us to have some thoughts on this topic. I am entirely happy with the phraseology used by Kim Howells in the House of Commons to describe the Government’s approach to freedom of labour from Bulgaria and Romania. He is right to say that nearer the time we will come to a more precise decision. I have no doubt that that will be done in the same spirit as the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden reacted to the enlargement of the eight. I think that we are entitled to say that there is a problem with the Roma in Romania on a different scale from that of most of the other countries of the eight, which could provide some difficulty, but we are in a position to monitor that and I am sure that we shall. I place in this context the Minister’s encouraging remarks in the previous debate, when he said that we should remember that one can use the tax system as a degree of one’s judgment and independence. That is particularly welcome when we are talking not merely about income tax but more specifically about indirect taxes, excise duties and corporation tax. I welcome the remarks that he made on that occasion and I am glad that it was read into our record, even though it was done rather late on a Tuesday evening and not with a standing-room only audience.