European Union (Amendment) Bill

The noble Lord has given the Committee a wonderful description of one group that is charging ahead for a federal Europe and the others, who believe, as he does, in co-operation between sovereign states. Will he say why, in a large number of intergovernmental organisations that involve purely co-operation between sovereign states, the organisation concerned is given international legal personality? Why on earth is that? I can answer the question perfectly easily, although probably not in terms that are very helpful to him. The reason is that it is a useful thing to do and the totality of the member states of that organisation believes it to be so. That is precisely what the Lisbon treaty will do.