Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste Management Licensing) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006

My Lords, I know little about this instrument, or directive, that my noble friend Lord Greaves has talked about this evening, but I want to raise one or two issues that have come out of the discussion. The statistic of 84 per cent regarding German legislation was very interesting. I have no way of verifying that figure but it is probably correct because Germany does not have the equivalent of a Home Office to legislate very widely and frequently. The key issue is that if we wish to have a true single market for goods and services, we must ensure that there are no technical barriers to that trade. In that way, many British companies and industries have been successful in their exports and trade with other European partners. I strongly believe that it is a reasonable area of authority for the European Union to demand that manufacturers, whether importing into the EU or manufacturing and selling within it, increasingly produce products which can be recycled effectively and efficiently. I accept that my noble friend has made important criticisms of this directive. I am also sympathetic towards how democracy works between us and the European Union. I suggest to the noble Lord, Lord Willoughby de Broke, that the way to achieve what he seeks is to tackle the democratic deficit in Brussels and Europe rather than trying to change how the single market works so that it would not work in reality. The technical barriers of a number of our partners, whether France or the southern European members, would mean many of our exports would be blocked in all sorts of technical ways. Although there might be issues around this legislation, it is certainly an area of EU competence. It is a single-market issue of recycling and it is of environmental concern across the EU. That general principle therefore needs to be stated. Let us tackle the democratic deficit in Europe and ensure that all decisions are at least made by co-decision, so that we can have full democratic input in Brussels. The role of national parliaments should be to control their Executives who send Ministers to the Council of Ministers. That is how national parliaments should be most effective and one of the biggest ways in which parliaments of member states have been least effective. That is the tragedy.