European Union (Amendment) Bill

I was not going to intervene in this debate but we have had very much one tone in it. I begin by congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, on a skilful speech in which he cleverly mentioned the key point—that there is a legally binding protocol—at only the very end. Everything that has been said would stand. It is perhaps a pity that we no longer have the wording about the free and undistorted competition as one of the constitutional treaty’s objectives. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt said, and he is always an honest man, there is this legally binding protocol to the treaty of Lisbon which ensures that, "““the internal market … includes a system ensuring that competition is not distorted””." That is the key quote. The protocol says that the single EU market, which is a clear objective in Article 3 of the new treaty, includes a system ensuring undistorted competition. There are references to competition in the existing treaties, and they all remain in Articles 4, 27, 34, 81, 89, 91, 96, 98, 105 and 157. The idea that competition has somehow been wiped away from the whole of the European Union is way over the top, and is not true. When this legislation goes through, the legal position in relation to competition will remain unchanged.