European Union (Amendment) Bill

The hon. Gentleman can use whatever name he wants for the Foreign Minister, the president and the diplomatic corps, but they still exist. Let me quote the Foreign Affairs Committee. It has a Labour majority, and the Labour Government are trying to sell us the idea that there is nothing to worry about. The FAC says:"““the Government risks underestimating, and certainly is downplaying in public, the importance and potential of the new foreign policy institutions established by the Lisbon Treaty, namely the new High Representative””—" I do not care what the person is called; he is a Foreign Minister—"““and the European External Action Service””—" the European diplomatic service."““We recommend that the Government should publicly acknowledge the significance of the foreign policy aspects of the Lisbon Treaty.””" Even a Labour-dominated Committee of this House was prepared to accept that there is something in the treaty that the Government had said that they did not want, but which they had got. The Government then said, ““It doesn't matter because we're not really concerned about it,”” and told us that we were scaremongering.