European Union (Amendment) Bill

It will not affect the relationship with the Security Council. As happens now with Mr Solana there are occasions when the EU speaks at the UN. In so doing the high representative could speak only on agreed European Union policy. He could not speak in any other context. He cannot make policy or determine changes in policy. He can speak only when there is an agreed policy. If there is not an agreed policy in which all member states, including the UK are agreed, the high representative could not speak on that policy. It would be for the UN to determine if it wished him to do so. I hope that that is clear. Obviously the posts have yet to be filled. We have yet to ratify the treaty so there are issues about its implementation. Some preparatory technical discussions have taken place under the Slovenian presidency, which is normal practice in any legislation that I have been involved in. You make the preparations but that should be done only on the basis of not pre-empting decisions that would be reached. When there have been technical issues or developments, details that we have had available have been given to the Select Committees, as we would be expected to do. I think the real issue behind all this is how we make sure we are kept in touch with what happens next, not in terms of negotiations on a treaty but on implementation, particularly around these rules. My honourable friend Jim Murphy, the Minister for Europe, has today written to the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell. I shall not read out the whole letter—it is hot off the press, and I hope the noble Lord has actually got it—but I will quote from it and will make sure that noble Lords get a copy of it and that a copy is put in Library. "““There are a number of implementation issues to be decided before the Treaty enters into force. Preparatory technical discussions in some areas have already begun under the Slovene Presidency. Whilst it is only sensible to ensure the EU is ready to implement the Treaty - if all countries have ratified - we have made it clear to and agreed with our EU partners that no final decisions can be taken until ratification is confirmed … I wish to re-affirm to you that the Government will do its utmost to keep both Houses informed, across the full range of Treaty Implementation issues through Ministerial contact before any discussions of implementation issues at European Council and sectoral EU Ministerial meetings””." I shall pass on the full text, which goes into some detail about the kinds of things that are being discussed, and I hope noble Lords will find it of benefit. As I have indicated, some preparatory work has been carried out by the Council legal service. When I met Jean-Claude Piris, the head of the legal service of the Council, in Brussels, he was clear that it was simply to allow the Lisbon treaty changes to be given effect smoothly and that nothing would be done that would pre-empt ratification. We will have a chance to debate the issues concerned with the role and function of the external action service later because there are amendments that will enable us to do that.