European Union (Amendment) Bill

Perhaps I may help the noble Lord. The answer given by the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, was that many thought it right to make this explicit. My answer is that many think it right to make it clear that we are no longer talking about legal schizophrenia. There was a time—from the beginning—when the European Communities had an acknowledged legal personality, which was recognised by all, and a treaty-making power. From about the time of Maastricht, when the party of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, was in office, it became clear that the European Union had a legal personality. It was running cities in Bosnia and had to be capable of being sued for its deeds or misdeeds. So it is clear that it had a de facto legal personality from the early 1990s. However, some still argued that it had two personalities: when it was the European Union it had one; when it was the European Communities it had another. The discussions in the first months of the convention, in which the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, took part, established that there was no need to maintain this schizophrenia. The question of a single legal personality is interesting. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, asked precisely the right question: what does that mean for the powers of the high representative? What can he do with the single legal personality? The answer is, of course, exactly the same as the rotating president of the Council could do. It is not the legal personality that confers new competencies or powers; it is what the rest of the treaty says.