European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Jay, because it gives me the perfect alibi for not following the noble Lord, Lord Waddington. But I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, will catch my eye on one or two occasions during my intervention and I might have a word to address to him. The only thing that I would say to him immediately is that it is a complete fiction to say that the Government objected to 90 per cent of the outcome of the Convention on the Future of Europe. With the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, I had the privilege of representing your Lordships’ House on that convention. We regularly met the then Prime Minister and he was largely in agreement with the main thrust of the outcome of the convention. There was one point of disagreement with him, however, because all the way through that period, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, assured us that there would never be a referendum on the outcome. When he changed his mind, I said at the earliest opportunity in your Lordships’ House that he was as right in his earlier assurances to the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, and me as he was wrong in his change of mind. I welcome the European Union (Amendment) Bill; I welcome the EU Select Committee report; and I welcome the Constitution Committee report. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, on the exemplary way in which he has taken us through that extremely complex document. It was his usual tour de force. I concur with him on the excellence of the report’s analysis. I shall briefly refer, however, to the much less examined—though it has been discussed frequently in our debate today—report of the Constitution Committee, which has made several clear and unambiguous statements, the first of which is: "““The House of Lords Constitution Committee has concluded that the Lisbon Treaty and the European Union (Amendment) Bill are likely to have no major damaging impact on the constitution of the UK””." It is a clear conclusion, and I concur with it. The report goes on to state: "““The Committee concludes that the Treaty would make no alteration to the relationship between the principles of primacy of EU law and parliamentary sovereignty; and would have no constitutional implications for UK citizenship””." That is equally clear, and I equally concur with it. The report then states: "““The Committee also reports that the new arrangements with respect to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights would have no significant impact””." The noble Lord, Lord Waddington, should take note of that. The final points that the report cogently makes is that the introduction of a, "““provision explicitly confirming Member States’ right to withdraw from the European Union underlines the point that the United Kingdom only remains bound by European Union law as long as Parliament chooses to remain in the Union””." That has now been made explicitly clear, and I would hope that people such as the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, welcomed that clarity. I commend the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad, and his committee for their excellent work. I was reading the minutes of evidence of the report of the committee of the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, in a period when I did not have a great deal to do. I came across the evidence of my old friend, John Palmer, the political director of the European Policy Centre. He said to the committee that he thought that debate on the treaty was, "““much ado about not a great deal””." I even thought that that might have been a good title for the report by the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell. John Palmer went on to say that, "““it is the modesty and maybe the adequacy in some respects of this Treaty, rather than its ambitions that strikes me as important””." He was followed shortly afterwards in giving evidence by Professor Damian Chalmers, Professor of European Union Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who gave us the benefit of his view that, "““it is probably the most limited reform, with the exception of the Treaty of Nice, that we have seen in the last 20 years””." I concur with that judgment. Let us look at the previous reforms. The Single European Act—tribute has been paid to the noble Baroness, Lady Thatcher, for her role in that—set out the blueprint not only for completing the single market but for providing for co-operation in foreign policy, and it created the concept of the convergence of economic and monetary policies. It was fundamentally and politically important in a way with which it is hard to find exact parallel in the treaty of Lisbon. There was no discussion of, or serious commitment to, a referendum on the treaty of Maastricht, but it created economic and monetary union, the common foreign and security policy and the beginnings of co-operation on justice and home affairs. If ever there was major constitutional change, it was there. The treaty of Lisbon pales into relative insignificance by comparison and the same applies to the other treaties with the exception of the treaty of Nice. I remind noble Lords that if some got their wish and the treaty of Lisbon and the European Union (Amendment) Bill fell, we would be stuck with the treaty of Nice, which constitutes the most inadequate of all the treaty changes that we have had. The amendment Bill is very clear and simple. It sets out to do four major things. It will adapt our structures and the key institutions of the European Union to a Union of 27 member states with other countries, particularly in the Balkans, being encouraged to have the ambition to join us and enlarge that number even further. It will ensure that the voice of EU member states is heard more prominently in foreign affairs. It will bring national parliaments into a closer day-to-day relationship with European Union decision-making, and it will focus the EU on big external changes. So the objectives are very clear. The British Government’s preoccupation right the way through has been with those so-called four ““red line”” areas. These important areas comprise the Charter of Fundamental Rights; the whole question of criminal law and police and judicial co-operation; social security; and common, foreign and security policy. As we have heard frequently in this debate, in all areas our major national interest has been defended and protected and the red lines round it have been fully secured. All sorts of other advantages were mentioned earlier. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Kinnock for not concentrating just on the loss of our so-called veto on the extension of qualified majority voting but rather on the other aspect of the voting system which is of major benefit to the United Kingdom in terms of the weighting of votes giving proportional interest to size of population in a country. I am positive about the treaty and therefore about the European Union (Amendment) Bill for a number of reasons. It necessarily streamlines the European Union and usefully clarifies the EU powers. It sensibly gives the EU a more powerful voice in the world. It fundamentally enhances the accountability of the European Union both to national parliaments and the Governments of the member states, and clearly improves its capacity to enhance Europe’s competitiveness. It achieves all that while fully respecting all the rights and privileges not only of the UK but of all other member states. That is a substantial achievement and a substantial list of benefits. I support the Bill.