European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, at this stage of a very long debate the best things come in small packages, and that is what I would like to offer—neatly gift-wrapped, of course. I shall make three points and, unlike some other noble Lords who have said that, three points only. My first point is that the basic premise, the basic supposition, of Euroscepticism—that being members of the European Union or specifically signing-up to the Lisbon treaty marks a diminution in our sovereignty—is false. Something close to the opposite is true. Sovereignty today—certainly in the areas of the academic world where I work—quite rightly and properly, does not mean a legal fiction or an empty formula; it means the capability of a country to shape its own future and to influence the wider world around it. Those influences are, for us, much stronger as members of the European Union than they would be outside. We are a nation of 60 million people in a world of 6 billion people where, as other noble Lords have said, there are massive dynamic forces which no nation can adequately confront on its own. I would call this sovereignty plus and argue, contrary to the Eurosceptics, that our membership of the European Union and our signing-up to the Lisbon treaty, which I wholeheartedly endorse, will deliver sovereignty plus for us. Secondly, I am a pro-European but I was pleased that the constitutional treaty went down as I was not a believer in a single constitution for Europe. I was happy also that some of the more jingoistic phrases associated with that constitutional integration had been removed from the Lisbon treaty version. With them have gone the last lingering hopes of some who believe that Europe could be a federal super-state, that it could be the United States of Europe, something akin to the US on the European continent. In its place we have a Europe which not only acknowledges national identity but which actively supports it; which not only acknowledges diversity but encourages it; but which allows us to come together as a common agency to deal with common problems that we must face. Euro-federalism is dead and the Lisbon treaty wrote ““RIP”” on its coffin. Thirdly, it is extraordinary how much dust has been kicked up around the Lisbon treaty by critics because, surely, it supplies the UK with more or less everything it asked for and the model of Europe for which successive Governments of this country have pushed. We wanted a Europe which was open and flexible; we have a Europe which is open and flexible. We pushed for enlargement; we got enlargement. As other noble Lords have said, there is a tremendous difference when an EU of 15 nations becomes an EU of 27 nations. It is obvious—everyone has to accept this—that the mechanisms which allowed one to achieve effective governance for an EU of 15 cannot work in an EU of 27. We wanted the European Union as an open and competitive market; the European Union is an open and competitive market. It therefore seems odd to create a firestorm around a treaty which delivers the kind of Europe we should all endorse. The French Parliament has just wholeheartedly endorsed the Lisbon treaty; it is almost certain that the Dutch Parliament will do the same. The two countries which voted down the previous form of the treaty will endorse the current one and I am quite clear that we should follow in their path. I can have some sympathy with those who are against us being in Europe, the full-blown Eurosceptics. It is a consistent case which can be argued even though I radically disagree with it. However, I cannot see the possibility of some kind of half-way position which the Tory party seems to advocate. It is not possible to live in a house somewhere out in the suburbs when everyone else is living in a community in a completely different neighbourhood on the other side of town.