European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am grateful for that explanation. That was my understanding. I would be delighted to give way to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, but for reasons of time I will not do so. It is getting late and I shall be very brief. As the Conservative Party in the Lords and UKIP have been conferring frequently on these matters—that is a normal procedure and I do not object to it—I know that the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, will make precisely the same point as the one just made by the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth. We on these Benches regret that Amendment No. 9 has been tabled. The adjective used has changed over a short time. Those of us who are interested in philology will reflect on the changes in language over time. For instance, in English, the words ““thank you”” have now been replaced by the word ““cheers””, which now means ““thank you”” on all occasions. When you are getting out of a taxi and saying goodbye to the driver you say ““cheers”” rather than ““thank you””. That has taken probably about nine years to evolve. In this case, the adjective for the nature, quality and texture of the amendments from our Tory colleagues last Tuesday—the first allotted day of the Committee of the whole House—was always that the amendments were ““probing””, whereas in the Commons the text was always presented as ““wrecking”” amendments. So the adjective ““probing”” has evolved from ““wrecking”” in the space of four weeks. That demonstrates how language can change rapidly depending on the examples provided. We believe that the amendment would be destructive and we hope it will not be taken further. The creation of this post will be important for the future progress of the enlarged and complicated European Union of 27 member states. The important change envisaged is the creation of the post of a new full-time president for a first period of two-and-a-half years, renewable by only one similar period, making up to five years for the same individual. This would be the person to drive forward—a phrase which was also used by the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, though he does not approve of it—the European Union policies. I use the modern phraseology ““drive forward”” because the European Union needs a powerful and respected figure as president to drive forward the agreed consensus policies of the sovereign member states. That is what it is in essence, and that is what it will remain in the future—in this highly non-federal, unfederalistic European Union. The European Union is a modern creation which is not easy to describe in the context of the history of political and state structures. It is a unique body, sui generis in every way; a Union of sovereign member states. The member states will inevitably allocate to individuals, and to the central institutions which were freely and happily adopted by them, a considerable amount of discretion and intrinsic power, of whatever nature, in the actualité of how the role unfolds in the future. Logically, we do not know what that will be because it is a new post and many details will have to be discussed when and if the treaty is ratified by all the member states, which could take up until the end of this year. There is currently a President of the European Council but that position has been weakened in the increasingly enlarged community. All the people involved in it have repeatedly said in recent years that the troika system has not been able to function effectively and that the six-month period for an individual chairman of the Council of Ministers and the European Council has not produced sufficient results. It is a complex exercise and this new creation is necessary. Amendment No. 9 is negative because it seeks to remove the role of the President of the European Council in external representation of the European Union. The President of the European Council now has the role of representing the EU externally. A good example is that Slovenia will lead the EU-Japan summit later this month. For all those reasons we hope the amendment will not make progress tonight and that other members of the Committee will endorse that view.