European Union (Amendment) Bill

I support my noble friend Lord Howell in his amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay, has just tried to clarify the role of the President of the European Council, as envisaged, and that of the apparently not-so-high representative for foreign affairs, who is also envisaged. I wonder how the overlap between their roles would be dealt with. As my noble friend Lord Howell said, we have heard much too little about how that will work out in practice. However, I also thought that the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, was most helpful in explaining that the permanent President of the European Council is indeed not intended to make the Union more efficient but to make it more effective. That is exactly what I feared. It seems to me that the corollary of the fact that the President of the European Council will be made more effective is that the Heads of Government of the 27 member states will be made less effective. That does not matter for the Heads of Government of the countries that punch below their weight on the world stage, but it does matter for those that punch above their weight on the world stage. Having spent 14 or 15 years working in Japan, I have seen that, in Japanese eyes, the United Kingdom has continually punched above its weight on the world stage. I suspect that the same is true in Korea, China and other countries that I have visited. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay, says that we cannot go on with a rotating presidency involving 27 members. I do not see why we cannot. Indeed, it is important to ensure that we do not have a permanent president because that would make the EU into a country, which means that the United Kingdom would be less effective because it would become less of a country; it would be less clearly seen as such.