European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, it is a challenge to follow the noble Lord, Lord Vinson, in this debate. His vision of this country reduced to being the province of a European republic is, of course, horrendous and entirely inaccurate. I was encouraged when looking up his entry in Dods just before the debate to find that there is one element of good Europeanism in his approach; his chief interest is listed as being objets d’art, so that gives us some encouragement. At the beginning of the debate, my noble friend Lord McNally identified two aspects of Britain’s political relationship with European integration. First, there is a tendency in opposition for the two larger parties to be anti-Europe and in government in practice to be somewhat pro-Europe and, secondly, there is a predilection to be late in terms of European developments. That has been consistent, from the Coal and Steel Community to the former Prime Minister, John Major, famously describing the euro as a rain dance. The pattern has been initial hostility, then hesitancy, then half-hearted support and above all miscalculation. Both those unfortunate tendencies have etched themselves in this debate, and I am sure that they will do so again in the days ahead. There is another tendency which, frankly, has always puzzled me. It is the fundamental timidity and lack of self-confidence that appears to motivate so much Euroscepticism. Why do we need to protect ourselves from Europe when we have such proven significant influence in it? Why are we shy of debates that we win and have won? Why do we insist on distancing ourselves from dialogue from which we benefit? I was particularly struck earlier in the debate by the speech made by the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, and the way in which he described issue after issue and development after development where the British case or perspective had substantially carried the day. I also liked his phrase ““super sovereignty””, which I had not encountered previously. That is a better term than ““shared sovereignty””, because it enables us to reach to sovereignty in common action that would otherwise simply not be available to this country. When I worked for the late and great Lord Jenkins in Brussels in the late 1970s, the European Community, as it then was, was dominated by a Franco-German axis. Its langue de travail was French. Many of its instincts were deeply suspicious of alliance with the United States. Last week in the Royal Gallery, just a few yards away, we listened to a fascinating speech by President Sarkozy of France. Although there were elements of passionate wooing involved, I do not believe that it was about Gallic charm. That speech really represented a significant shift and a tonality of great importance for the future. First, there was the President’s moving acknowledgement of the standing, status and continuing contemporary relevance of this Parliament and this democracy. Secondly, there was a moving acknowledgement of the debt that France owes Britain for what we did in the First World War, that mixing of blood in Flanders, and what we did in the Second World War, specifically the welcome to General de Gaulle and to Free France. There was a specific and, in many ways, surprising acknowledgement that the outcome of the Battle of Britain was vital to the existence of the Europe that we have today. He made another fascinating and important assertion in which he actually spelt out that the special relationship, in which I believe and which exists, between us and the United States based on language and history is of enormous value, not just to us—he said, it is ““part of you””—but to Europe and the European Union. Equally, he recognised our relationship with the Commonwealth and the worldwide role of the English language as a major asset of the European Union. In summary, the President was saying, ““Europe needs you and you need Europe. Can you conceive of having the same degree of influence and of winning the same arguments if you were not part of the project?””. How right he was. Why is this so relevant to this debate and to the treaty’s ratification? It is because, given the degree of agreement now about the nature of Europe—a Europe built on the nation states and which respects difference—we can move to having two clear priorities. The first is to ensure that the Europe of 27—and, later, more—really works and can work with efficiency and speed. The noble Lord, Lord Kerr, was absolutely right from a practical perspective to say that the sort of negotiation that could take place in a room with six or with nine is simply not conceivable with 27. We have to find new and better ways of working. The second priority on which President Sarkozy was absolutely specific was that this treaty enables us to move on. It enables the European Union to move on to the agenda for this century—climate change, energy, immigration, development, security and defence. Of course there is substantial similarity between the content of the Lisbon treaty and the defunct European constitutional treaty, but the intent is significantly different. I was not in favour of the original European constitution and that project, because there were people who saw a European constitution as defining the finalité européenne. A definition of the end point of the process of an ever closer union was somehow wanted. That seemed quite unnecessary and was something upon which there could, almost self-evidently, not be agreement. I see the European Union as not only idealistic, but essentially pragmatic and that point of view did not seem to be appropriate. The intent of this treaty is simply to make sure that the thing can work well in an enlarged context of 27 and later, perhaps, more. I want to conclude by focusing on the achievement and the challenge of enlargement. The European Union Committee’s report on the impact of Lisbon clearly states at paragraph 2.60 that: "““To a considerable extent, the Lisbon Treaty is a response to the enlargement of the EU””." Indeed it is. The enlargement, as has been pointed out many times in this debate, is an extraordinary achievement—the transformation of eastern central Europe towards the sort of societies and economies that they are now, and will increasingly become. I wish to share a personal experience regarding that transformational process in Romania. I was involved with the early stages of that country’s negotiations on becoming full members of the EU. A Member of this House, my noble friend Lady Nicholson, has significantly contributed to the development of rights for children and the conditions in orphanages in Romania. I was at a meeting where there was a discussion between a representative of the Commission, a representative of the then Romanian Government and my noble friend. When the representative of the then Romanian Government said, ““We are perfectly happy to discuss with you, the European Commission, what we do with the steel industry and the development of transport and so on, but we are not going to sit here and discuss the future of our children””, the representative of the Commission said, ““In that case, we are not discussing your future membership””. The Copenhagen criteria—the so-called soft power of Europe—were immensely civilising within the context of those talks. We should be proud of that power and it must continue. Lisbon will help it to continue. If we reject this Bill, we will be voting against developing the functionality and credibility of the European Union. We will be voting fundamentally against its future and, above all, we will be voting against ourselves. We will prove to be timid before opportunity, scared of shadows and unaware of substance. This has been an interesting debate and I conclude by pointing out three fascinating matters. First, I am not uncritical, as this Bench knows, of the way in which the Government have pursued their European policies, but the noble Baroness the Lord President of the Council’s speech was a fine example of what I sense is a strengthening of the European commitment of this Government. Secondly, no one should doubt the resolution of the European commitment of these Benches. Thirdly, it is for the Tories to decide where they stand, not least when the Bill passes. It has been a fascinating feature of this debate that even until this point, we have had six strong, authoritative, creditable and absolutely pro-European Conservative speeches. I am sure that by the end of the evening there will be more. Something is moving—and it is positive. What we have to do is vote on ourselves and vote on our future.