Treaty of Lisbon (No. 7)

It is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Michael Connarty), the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee. As usual, he spoke with considerable authority on these matters. He knows that I like to quote him from time to time, particularly when he said on the ““Today”” programme of the Government's red lines that they would ““leak like a sieve””—a very important quote, which bears frequent repetition when we are debating the treaty of Lisbon. I will refer briefly to the amateur dramatics that we saw earlier from the Liberal Democrats. They are making great play of this ““in-out”” referendum. All I will say, and very briefly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is that there was no reference in their manifesto to an in-out referendum; indeed, they argued for a referendum on the EU constitution, so they have no democratic mandate for the stunt that they pulled in the House this afternoon. Today's debate has considered some of the core issues of the treaty: the new EU president, the new definition and distribution of the EU's powers, the single legal personality, the abolition of more than 50 vetoes, the expansion of the European Parliament's powers and the ratchet clause. Yet the debate has had a slightly surreal quality because many of the decisions about how the new institutions will work in practice have yet to be taken. The House has been asked to discuss and scrutinise what amounts to a pig in a poke. To take one example, the European External Action Service is one of the most important institutional innovations in the treaty, but we are in ignorance of answers to crucial questions. As one former German ambassador to the EU put it:"““What will be the share of member states””" within the EEAS,"““I don't know. These are all open questions””." Those are, in fact, vital questions, to which Ministers do not have answers. I think that that is a shame and the fact that the Government have allowed such a position to arise provides an example of how little they care about their duty to be accountable to Parliament, let alone the British people. There can be little doubt that, taken as a whole, the treaty is the most fundamental change to the EU's structure since its foundation. The intergovernmental nature of decision making on criminal justice and policing, where direct national democratic accountability is vital, is fully absorbed into the Community system, the Commission having the main right of initiative, co-decision with the European Parliament and full jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice. That is a fundamental change, as the chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee—if he can bear me quoting him twice— has previously said. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) has also explained, the new president of the European Council will transform the way in which the European Council is run. This process is also an example of how the treaty does not end institutional debate in the EU, but sets new dynamics in train. As we repeatedly mention, because it bears repetition, the relationship between the proposed president and the new high representative—the Foreign Minister under another name—has not been worked out. As Brian Crowe, deputy director of Chatham House and former director general for external and politico-military affairs in the Council of the European Union, argued in a recent article and parliamentary brief, the president"““is to represent the EU 'at his or her level', which is one thing for attendance at EU summits with third countries, quite another if (as will always be the temptation for former heads of government who are likely to get the job) he seeks to cut a figure on the world stage competitively with the EU High Representative.””" Who could he have been referring to, we wonder, when he made that comment? It is exactly right.