European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am a bit puzzled by the debate so far, because it is not at all clear what it is about. I would have got the impression from the noble Lord, Lord Howell, that the amendment would remove the presidency of the European Council altogether, but when I look at the Marshalled List I see that it does not have that effect at all; it merely removes the external function of the President of the European Council. But many of the speeches, including that by the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, implied that they wanted nothing to do with the President of the European Council at all. It is also being suggested that the President of the Commission might at the same time become President of the European Council despite the fact that the treaty says: "““Members of the Commission may not, during their term of office, engage in any other occupation””." That seems to me to debar totally the President of the Commission becoming at the same time President of the European Council. The noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, seems to think that the rotating presidency has been abolished. But it has not abolished. It has been abolished only in the external representation of the European Union, not in the running of all the Council formations that deal with domestic policy. So he will still be there. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, said that he did not want a cult of celebrity. I pinched myself then when I thought that, in two months’ time, the possibly last holder of the rotating presidency, Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy, is going to become the President of the European Union. If you do not get that point, I shall not go any further. But I think that celebrity is a word that might spring to mind in that context. I hope this amendment will not be pursued. I think that giving an external job to the President of the European Council makes sense. If we did not have that, we would have the President of the Commission alone doing it. I cannot believe that that is what those proposing the amendment want. They presumably want the Council and the member states to be in the forefront of all the summit meetings with Russia, China, the United States and so forth. But if they remove the President of the European Union, then they will leave only the high representative, who will be one level down from the President of the Commission in that respect, who will be his president. I do not think that the amendment is very well thought through. Although I would agree that the deconfliction of the jobs of President of the European Council and the high representative will be an important part of the implementation of the treaty once it has been agreed and ratified, I think that, on the whole, the outcome will be a positive one, particularly because, if you think about it, the rotating presidency in the external field no longer makes much sense. There are 27 member states, probably 28 or 29 fairly soon. That means that you get the presidency once every 14 years, with no continuity and with countries such as Malta or Cyprus holding the post. The mind boggles a little bit about all that. There is no external representation anywhere around the world. I do not think that it makes any sense. This change is a timely one. I therefore hope that we will not insist on pursuing the amendment.