European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am going to make some progress because it is important to come on to justice and home affairs. I will take some further interventions later. Nothing in this treaty will reduce the UK’s sovereignty over immigration, asylum, visas, police co-operation or civil law. Why? Because, as my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Michael Connarty) said, we have secured an extension of the UK’s current opt-in arrangements. The UK has a right to choose when it wants to share power by joining EU arrangements in those areas. Let me quote what the European Scrutiny Committee said on the subject. It concluded that it was"““clear from the ‘opt-in’ arrangements that the UK is free to decide whether or not to take part, and to that extent is able to protect the distinctive features of the legal systems of the UK””." Similarly, nothing in the charter of fundamental rights extends the ability of any court—European or national—to strike down UK law. Professor Alan Dashwood of Cambridge university, a leading expert in this area, concluded that"““the Charter is not, in itself, a source of rights but simply provides a record of rights that receive protection within the Union, from one source or another””."