European Union (Amendment) Bill

As the shadow Minister for Europe, I know that there was a great deal of argument in the context of national Parliaments about whether the relevant word should be ““shall”” or ““may””; we will come on to that subject tomorrow, so I will not dwell on it now. No doubt we shall debate that point in detail tomorrow—the Minister is smiling already. In the paragraph of article 21 that the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West cited, the word ““shall”” appears three times, and I think that it appears in a compulsive context.