European Union (Amendment) Bill

My right hon. Friend's point is well made. He mentioned a common position. If it is true that Tony Blair is going to apply for the job, I would be interested to know whether there would be a common position in the Labour party on whether he ought to get it. We await the answer to that question with genuine anticipation. Amendments Nos. 262 and 263 deal with the new EU diplomatic service and, in particular, with the high representative's authority over it. The external action service—to give it its technical name—is a new institution in the treaty whose role has yet to be determined. Indeed, a leaked note from the Slovenian presidency makes that explicit. The Government are again asking the House and this country to sign a blank cheque. The post of high representative is a powerful one in itself, but with the diplomatic service at his beck and call, we should be in no doubt that the EU would tend not to supplement member states' foreign policy so much as try to supplant it. Our amendments seek to address that possibility. Amendment No. 1 is also important because it seeks to amend the crucial clause relating to the high representative's right to speak for the European Union at the United Nations Security Council when a common position is reached. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks said at the beginning of our earlier debate, its provisions—with a superficial change to the Foreign Minister's job title—are identical to those in the EU constitution. As such, they were repeatedly and publicly opposed by the Government's representatives in the negotiations on that document. As they put it at that time:"““The UK cannot accept any language which implies that it would not retain the right to speak in a national capacity on the UN Security Council.””" Yet that is exactly what the Government have agreed to, the change having won the satisfied approval of the wise, eminent and noble Lord Malloch-Brown.