European Union (Amendment) Bill

I wonder whether I can help the noble Lord. With respect, the important question that he addresses is not actually relevant to the articles of the treaty on which these amendments focus. If the noble Lord looks at article 2A, paragraph 6 states: "““The scope … and arrangements for exercising the Union’s competences shall be determined by the provisions of the Treaties relating to each area””." That is why the noble Lord, Lord Howell, said quite correctly that he did not intend to focus on the definitions in each case because we will come to debate them in subsequent amendments; he was concerned simply with these broad categories at the start. The proportion, amount and focus of legislation will not be affected by these articles, which are headline articles that describe categories of competence but do not affect the content of competence at all.