European Union (Amendment) Bill

My hon. Friend is pursuing a familiar argument, which was advanced during the consideration of a previous group of amendments. We all understand and respect that argument, but I hope that he will permit me to make the particular case about the need for primary legislation. In order to show the Committee the importance of the issue, I want to provide one more instance in which those powers could be used. Article 312 of the consolidated treaty, which concerns the need for unanimity in adopting the multi-annual financial framework of the Union, is another instance in which the passerelle could be employed by providing for that unanimity to be replaced by qualified majority voting. The adoption of the financial framework of the European Union goes to the heart of its priorities and budgets, and the unanimity rule in negotiating the financial framework is one of the last remaining negotiating levers of substantial power in the hands of nation states. Are the Government serious that such a power, which potentially affects the deployment of billions of pounds of British taxpayers' money, let alone our ability to get our way in European affairs across the board, can be done away with by a Minister getting up in this House on a Thursday afternoon to propose that it be done away with and securing a single affirmative vote? The procedure proposed by the Government is not remotely proportionate to the potential importance of the decisions. The Government may say that they cannot imagine proposing the changes that I have described, so we need not worry our little heads about them. There are several answers to that. First, if the Government have no intention of proposing such changes, they have nothing to fear from the most extensive possible parliamentary scrutiny or control and the requirement to pass an Act of Parliament. Secondly, the current Ministers will not be Ministers for ever, and if they are to be believed, the treaty is meant to last for a long time. Thirdly, whatever assurances Ministers give, they represent the Government who assured us that there would be a referendum and that there would be line-by-line scrutiny of the entire treaty. It is clear that such assurances cannot be relied on. Fourthly, if the Government have no intention of exercising the powers that I have described, why on earth did they agree to include them in the treaty in the first place? I put it to hon. Members from all parties, although there are more Opposition Members than Government Members in Committee, that irrespective of our views about the merits of the treaty as a whole—I am pleased that there is common ground with the Liberal Democrats on this—amendment of the Bill is possible in this area without wrecking the treaty. It is possible to provide for proper parliamentary debate and supervision of the exercise of powers by providing that passerelles or ratchet clauses will be subject to primary legislation in the British Parliament.