European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am prompted to intervene by a column I read a while ago in Time magazine by the noble Lord, Lord Lawson. It was entitled ““Darkness Looms””. He reminded readers that he had been energy Secretary 25 years before when there was a Department of Energy. I think that the noble Lord who has just spoken from the Front Bench also was an energy Minister in one capacity or another a considerable time ago. It prompted me to remember that I was the shadow spokesman 25 years ago, and a very enjoyable experience it was, too, to mark the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, who was great fun to debate with among other things. The experience prompted him, and it prompts me, to reflect on the changes that have taken place in the last 25 years. Our energy debates 25 years ago were primarily domestic. They centred around whether we should privatise and how we should allocate the enormous energy resources we had. We had an abundance of coal, we had oil, we had gas and we had nuclear power—a diverse range. In 25 years that scene has been transformed. I recall debating the importance of gas as the ““premium fuel”” and not burning it in power stations. The speed with which we have depleted our gas reserves has led to a problem of energy security. It is therefore not surprising that energy security has now come to the fore. I am not surprised that for the first time in a European treaty there is an energy chapter, though like the noble Lord I shall have some questions about it. We will also have an Energy Bill in the next week or two. Energy security has come to the centre stage. I should like to know the answers to the following questions, which in some ways the noble Lord, Lord Howell, also posed. What exactly will this energy chapter do? What is it all about? What is in it that was not in previous treaties or arrangements? For example, does it increase areas of qualified majority voting on energy? It appears that it does, but to what extent? I turn to what, for me, is the most authoritative assessment that we have—the European Union Select Committee’s report, which I found extremely useful. However, I found the paragraphs relating to energy rather less than full and the committee’s conclusion at paragraph 9.33 rather enigmatic: "““The new provisions in the Lisbon Treaty may raise the profile of the issue of energy but they do not constitute a major innovation. However the extension of QMV may be seen as significant””." When my noble friend replies to this debate, I hope that he will be able to spell out rather more clearly how far qualified majority voting will be extended in the field of energy. What illustrative examples can he give us to show the impact of this new energy chapter in terms of an extension of QMV? Unfortunately, in this case, and in this case only, the EU Committee did not provide us with that invaluable information. Secondly, I want to find out what the Commission’s involvement will be in issues of energy security. If one reads the debates in the other place, one can see that there were a lot of hares running with regard to how the Commission would be able to take over our supplies and reallocate them in an emergency or crisis. I should be grateful if my noble friend could clarify whether this chapter in any way adds to or develops the Commission’s or Council’s powers and whether it allows them, through the ordinary procedure, to extend and expand their role in the issue of emergency energy supplies. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Howell, that we have a very fine track record of dealing with crises in international energy, and it does not seem to me that there is any need for the Commission or anyone else to cut across the basic and fundamental responsibility and obligation placed on all of us under the terms of the energy agency. Again, I should be grateful if my noble friend could confirm the character and nature of the Commission’s responsibilities, if it has any in this regard, and say whether this treaty is in some cases promoting these areas. There was a debate in the other place about whether the Commission would have the power to propose, under ordinary procedure, a statutory increase in oil reserve stocks. Apparently, that was a hard-won concession. However, my recollection is that qualified majority voting in that area may have been introduced in the treaty of Nice. Again, I should be very grateful if my noble friend could clarify that. Finally, like the noble Lord, Lord Howell, I should like to know what the new role of the Commission and Council will be, through ordinary procedure, in attaining security of energy supplies. I thought that he was disingenuous in the case that he made—but it is a case that I shall make too. National Governments are ultimately responsible for the security of their energy supplies. However, despite our connections with Norway, if something relating to the security of energy supplies happened in Europe, no one could believe that that would not reverberate throughout our country as well. There is no longer a drawbridge in such issues, and therefore we have a profound interest in revising the complex relationships that exist between European countries and those in the East. After all the unbundling that might occur and all the competition that there might be in the European energy market, there is one inescapable fact—at least in relation to gas, for a very long period Europe will be dependent for its supplies on the East. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Howell, occasionally reads Select Committee reports. He chaired the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs with distinction while I also had the privilege of serving on it. It recently produced a report entitled Global Security: Russia which spells out the incredibly complex, difficult and dangerous diplomatic moves that are interlocked with gas pipeline diplomacy. This diplomacy could have a considerable effect on Russian-Turkish and Russian-Turkish-EU relationships, let alone relationships between Russia and its neighbouring states. I therefore also wonder what further role the European Commission will play in this capacity. We had the G8 meeting in St Petersburg and the establishment of an energy charter treaty. We have a UK-Russian forum. We also have an EU-Russian energy forum. It seems that lots of processes are in place. The problem is not the processes, it is people’s definition of what their national interests are. In the case of the Russians, they apparently do not want to ratify that treaty or agree to a transit protocol of the kind that we and our European partners would like. All of these are profoundly serious matters. I am not sure what additional power and role the Commission will have in energy security, despite its reference in the chapter. Like the noble Lord, Lord Howell, I will end on this note. I agree that there should be a European dimension to our energy policy—unlike some of the amendments, which would make it impossible to have any kind of a European Union energy policy. Everybody knows, in every nation state, that the citizens of the nation state hold their national Governments responsible for heat and light. I can recall at least two Governments of the past 30 years, in my parliamentary lifetime, where that lesson was learnt. In February 1974, the Government of the day learnt a very painful lesson—that if they could not keep the lights on then there would be considerable political as well as social and economic consequences. Ten years later, in 1984, we found a Government who had learnt that lesson and were prepared to avoid such a situation. In the last resort, however much we should endeavour to develop the desirable idea of a common European energy policy, it will always remain the national Government’s responsibility to ensure that our nation is warm and lit.