Lisbon Treaty (No. 3)

I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. As I was saying, article 51(2) of the charter states:"““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 by the Treaties.””" The horizontal articles in title VII of the charter, especially articles 51 and 52, define the field of application, scope and interpretation of the charter. They clearly state that the charter is aimed at EU institutions and member states only as they are implementing EU law. In addition, the official explanations, which indicate the source of the rights and principles contained in the charter, have been published together with the charter in the Official Journal of the European Union. I have already mentioned article 6, which states that due regard must be given to those explanations. By setting out the sources of and limits of the provisions in the charter, the explanations show that it does not create any new rights, but simply reaffirms rights that are already recognised in the law of the Union and in member states' own national laws. The combination of those three measures—the wording of article 6, the horizontal articles and the official explanations—makes the charter's scope and interpretation absolutely clear. However, we listened to concerns expressed about, in particular, the charter's alleged interference with United Kingdom labour and social laws, and for the avoidance of any doubt we negotiated a fourth safeguard. It consists of a binding protocol, originally proposed by and for the United Kingdom but later extended to Poland. My right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor went into some detail about the content of the protocol, and I shall not repeat what he said.