Treaty of Lisbon (No. 4)

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has studied carefully the consolidated text of the treaty, and he needs to look at article 51, in which the position is made absolutely clear: the protocol has exactly the same legal effect as any other part of the Lisbon treaty. There is absolutely no basis of fact or law in his assertion that somehow including the provision in a protocol in any way involves a relegation of the issue governed by the protocol. If he has any doubt about that, he should look again at the treaty. He will also probably want to look at the provisions of the Vienna convention, as I have done in preparation for the debate, in relation to how international treaties are to be interpreted. He will find a clear exposition of the international law of treaties and how questions of interpretation in relation to preambles, annexes and protocols are approached. The rebuttal to the Opposition motion can be found in all those sources. The Opposition have misunderstood the legal basis of the protocol. That flushes out one of the most unpleasant aspects of the debate, which is the feverish hatred of all things European that permeates those on the Opposition Benches—and has come principally from those on their Front Bench—with some noble exceptions, although only one of them is on the Opposition Benches today. The European Commission, strongly supported by the UK Government, is now pushing ahead with implementing the single market review and the Lisbon agenda, both of which are based on the explicit foundation that Europe must continue to tackle anti-competitive practices and barriers to competition. The protocol will help us to achieve our priorities for the single market in the next decade. As Neelie Kroes, the Competition Commissioner, said recently:"““I simply do not agree with the scaremongers who argue that the Protocol is the end of European competition law as we know ""it. The Protocol maintains in full force the competition rules which have served European citizens so well for fifty years””." That is also the clear view of both the Law Society—a very respected source of opinion—and the Commission's own legal service. I referred to technical changes in the articles dealing with the single market made by the Lisbon treaty. Some of my hon. Friends have also referred to them. They all offer the prospect of further improvements to the single market, and can therefore be seen as having a beneficial, pro-reform, pro-enterprise effect on the single market. Amendments to article 47 introduced qualified majority voting on legislation to remove barriers to self-employed professionals working in other member states of the Union. The free movement of people is one of the four key foundations on which the single market rests. That further advances that fundamental principle, and will be of particular benefit to professionally qualified people.