European Union (Amendment) Bill

Even I, in my parliamentary and leadership dotage, can recognise that as not being a very good deal from either a personal or a Liberal Democrat point of view. I think I will pass on it, but I will refer it to the leader of my party. It seems to me that there are just three big points of principle that should lead us to vote for the Bill's Second Reading—as my party will—and to want the treaty to come into being and subsequently into operation. As the Prime Minister has said, that will enable us as a country to go beyond Lisbon and get on with the job of Europe, under the revised mechanisms envisaged here. First, there is the issue of enlargement. Whether or not the present mechanism would lead to gridlock, as many fear—myself included—I think that everyone will acknowledge that it can be improved, and that the treaty offers a mechanism for such improvement. We hear concerns, expressed today with characteristic wit by the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague), about the accrual of power that can take place in certain positions in institutions at European Union level. Talk to people in and around the Commission—talk to the Commissioners themselves—and what do they say about the Cabinet style of Commission government? They say that the larger the Commission becomes—the more Commissioners there are—the greater is the propensity for items on the agenda not to be addressed properly, and to be referred back to the Commission President. There is a steady accrual and centralising of power in his office, simply because of the sheer growth in the size of the Commission. That office cannot be kept in check to the extent that is healthy and necessary, which is why the relevant provision in the treaty is so important. The second issue has already been touched on. Whether we call this a treaty or a constitution—I am not into the semantic argument—I have always told my friends of Eurosceptic outlook that they are the people who should be most emphatically in favour of some codification of the responsibilities of the institutions of Europe, the rights of redress of the citizens of Europe when they are dissatisfied with those institutions, and ultimately, if they take the most profoundly Eurosceptical view, the right of a nation state to have an agreed legal mechanism enabling it to withdraw from Europe. What we have before us provides that mechanism, and it therefore seems to me that the sceptics more than anyone else, if they chose to pursue a different argument from the one that they have pursued, could commend much of the treaty revision. Thirdly, it depends on how we see our position in the world. Everyone agrees now, since the end of the cold war and all the rest, that we live in a multipolar world. As one who is both a pro-American and a pro-European, I do not think that the British position vis-à-vis the United States or Europe is an either/or, and I hope that it never becomes that. However, whether there is a continuation of the style and substance of the present Bush presidency, which I hope does not happen, or whether the new president is a Democrat—and I am under no illusions there either—the fact remains that we cannot hope as an individual country to influence the direction of global United States foreign policy to the extent that we can as full top-table participants in the European Union. That is the choice that is increasingly opening up for our country, and I hope that this treaty provides a way of developing it in terms of the foreign policy process that it will put in train with a view to the future. My final point is on a matter that the Minister for Europe knows about only too well—as might do the Foreign Secretary, who made a commendably pro-Europe speech, unlike some Government members. Let us use language accurately to commend the treaty.