European Union (Amendment) Bill

It is not sophistry to argue, as I propose to do, that the reform treaty that we have before us is a very different treaty from the constitutional treaty that, having been rejected in France and the Netherlands by referendum, was withdrawn by all 27 Heads of State. I want to rely heavily on evidence that has been produced in this House before. I remember, in particular, the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, taking us through some of the arguments that were produced by the Dutch Council of State, an independent body in the Netherlands advising the Dutch Government and the Dutch Parliament about the decisions that they had to make. I shall briefly quote two paragraphs from its report because they are pertinent. It said: "““Unlike the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe [the reform treaty] provides no arguments for a gradual expansion of the EU towards a more explicit state or federation. The purpose of these changes, taken together, is to rid the proposed Reform Treaty as far as possible of the elements from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe which could have formed a basis for the development of the EU into a more explicit state or federation””." It concluded: "““All this means that the proposed Reform Treaty is substantially different from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe””." This is high-quality independent legal advice, given to a parliament and Government that had to face up to the decision of a referendum on the constitutional treaty. Anybody who has read the whole report on the Dutch decision will be totally convinced by the argument. The facts are there for anybody in the Committee to read; they have been referred to frequently in previous debates. I assert absolutely and clearly that anybody who says that there is no difference between the rejected constitutional treaty and the current reform treaty is flying in the face of all the available evidence. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Howell, knows this and is embarrassed.