Lisbon Treaty (No. 3)

Not all from me, for Pete's sake! I have given way to the hon. Gentleman already. I will give way to him later, but now I must make some progress. As the House knows, the charter was originally drafted as a declaratory document agreed at the Cologne summit in 1999. Before agreeing that the charter should have treaty status, the Government insisted that greater clarity was required to define precisely what the scope and effect of such a status would be, which is the answer to the hon. Member for Beaconsfield. We pledged that nothing in the charter of fundamental rights would give national or European courts any new powers to strike down or reinterpret UK law, including with regard to labour and social legislation. That is what we have delivered. We have also negotiated an extensive package of safeguards. Four measures in particular have been put in place: the new wording of article 6 of the Lisbon treaty; the charter's horizontal articles, found in articles 51 and 52; the revised official explanations accompanying the charter; and the binding protocol on page 172. Individually and taken together, those measures represent a substantial degree of protection for British interests. I will deal with them in turn. The amended article 6 states:"““The provisions of the Charter shall not extend in any way the competencies of the Union as defined in the Treaties. The rights, freedoms and principles in the Charter shall be interpreted in accordance with the general principles…of the Charter governing its interpretation and application and with due regard to the explanations…in the Charter””." The horizontal articles contained in title VII stipulate:"““The provisions of the Charter are addressed to the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and””," crucially,"““to the Member States only when they are implementing Union law...The Charter does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power or task for the Union, or modify powers and tasks as defined in the Treaties.””" In addition, the official explanations to the charter, which indicate the source of the rights and principles it contains, provide further clarification:"““The explanations drawn up as a way of providing guidance in the interpretation of the Charter shall be given due regard by the courts… and…Member States””." The explanations demonstrate that the charter does not create any new rights, but reaffirms rights that are already recognised. The final measure, the protocol, which we have secured along with Poland, completes the protection. The language is unusually clear for an EU instrument:"““The Charter does not extend the ability of the Court of Justice of the EU, or any court or tribunal of Poland or the United Kingdom, to find that laws, regulations or administrative provisions, practices or action of Poland or of the United Kingdom are inconsistent with the fundamental rights, freedoms and principles that it reaffirms. In particular, and for the avoidance of doubt, nothing in Title IV of the Charter creates justiciable rights applicable to Poland or the United Kingdom except in so far as Poland or the United Kingdom has provided for such rights in its national law.””" Then there is a further limb to the protocol.