European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am very grateful to my noble friend. One need say no more at this stage than that the wording is, to say the least, very curious, and it is highly doubtful whether it has the effect which the Government apparently thought that it would have. Certainly the legal adviser to the Commons Scrutiny Committee thought that it was completely ineffective to do that which the Government apparently intended. But why did the Government intend it in the first place? They could not possibly have taken the view that the charter creates no new rights because if that were the case, there would be no need for any fuss at all. The Government are accepting that the charter may produce new rights and that is why, if the protocol is effective, it ensures that British people get the worst of all worlds. British citizens cannot go to the European Court of Justice if they think their rights under the charter, such as their trade union rights, have been infringed. That surely follows from Article 1(2) of the protocol and Article 2. British citizens will be bound by the decisions of the court as a result of proceedings brought by citizens of other countries. Cases will be brought by the citizens of other countries, the European Court of Justice’s interpretation of the charter will become part of European law and, as European law has primacy over our law, our courts will follow the European Court’s ruling. That would be clear enough, even without the preamble to the protocol which stresses that this protocol is without prejudice to other obligations devolving upon Poland and the United Kingdom under the treaty on the European Union, the treaty on the functioning of the European Union and Union law generally. I cannot for the life of me see how British people should applaud the Government for introducing this protocol because if any real new rights are created as a result of the charter, the British people are, by the action of this Government, barred from benefiting from them. According to the Commons European Select Committee, the only way of ensuring that the charter does not affect UK law in any way is to make it clear that the protocol takes effect, notwithstanding the treaties or Union law in general. Finally, why have the Government not taken the advice of that Commons Select Committee? If they had, they would not be in the mess which they are now clearly in.