European Union (Amendment) Bill

More in sorrow than in anger, I come to this amendment. I am, frankly, surprised that the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, has chosen this subject to exclude from the coverage of the legislation that we are now looking at. When the noble Lord read out the extract from the text, I realised that under the rules of this House it is not considered correct to applaud, but I felt tempted to applaud that text. First, it seems to be highly valuable to the United Kingdom, and, secondly, it is an anti-centralisation measure. That is why I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, will not support the amendment, because it goes in the direction that he has favoured. When we turn to the purpose of the subsidiarity clauses that exist now and are repeated here, and which were quoted, we should recall that they did not exist some years ago. When we entered the Community, they were not there. It was one of the faults of the Community that there was a centralising tendency. There was no recognition that a number of things could be better done at national level, and that the things that were to be done at Community or Union level were those that were better done for specific reasons at that level. That was an important step forward and one that in the United Kingdom we should welcome now, just as we welcomed it at the time. Furthermore, it is not correct to interpret this part of the text as if it had no application to the work of the Council and the Commission. That is where it has application. This shows that where the Council takes decisions, it should bear in mind the principle of subsidiarity. The Commission also should do that in presenting proposals. It may well be that we are not satisfied that the Commission has always gone as far as it should go in respecting the principle of subsidiarity, but that is not a reason to attack the basic proposal that we are discussing now.