European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am of course aware of the distinction made by the noble Lord and I am grateful for his intervention, which perhaps goes some way to answering the questions I raised about what is said in Article 7 about respect for private life. Another question concerns the provisions that appear to conflict with UK law. Perhaps the noble Lord will intervene on this one as well. One of the charter’s provisions is that no one should be convicted for an offence of which he has already been acquitted. This point has already been raised. The Government have set about altering the rules on double jeopardy in certain cases. The more one looks at the charter in detail, the more one sees ways round the safeguards, which is why I begin to see why the Government have tried so hard in so many different ways with so many ingenuous devices to try to make it watertight, but I doubt whether it works. I also wonder why we need both this charter and the ECHR. One has a slight suspicion that the EU just wanted to have one as well. In the event of a conflict between the ruling of the ECJ and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which one will have priority? I imagine that it will be the ECHR. In speaking to Amendment No. 87, my noble friend Lord Kingsland raised the question of whether, when the ECJ makes a ruling on the charter that is justiciable in another country, that ruling will apply to this country as well, because the charter will have to be applied through its incorporation into EU law as a decision concerning another country. When that point was raised in Committee in another place, the Minister, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary—admittedly she had very little time—replied by making two very simple points. First, she asked whether we were not all aware that the ECJ’s decisions had been binding since 1957 and, secondly, she said that the charter created no new rights. Although those answers have the merit of being simple and direct, they are not actually an answer to the question raised. There is a way in which this could have been addressed: the protocol should have said that it has effect, regardless of other treaties or EU law. In that way, the protocol would have been much more likely to be watertight. I remain deeply sceptical. I raise these questions and await the Minister’s reply but, because of all my doubts, I am strongly sympathetic to the first amendment, moved by my noble friend, that the charter should be struck out.