European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness, and quite accept that if my postal systems are not all that marvellous and things come through slowly it is nothing to do with her; it is my fault. However, my noble friend Lord Hunt, who has been intimately involved in the handling of the Bill throughout, has still not received his copy either. Maybe, therefore, something more than just my own postal system is at fault. I am sure that she would be ready to check with her office as to what, exactly, happened in the case of myself and my noble friend. If I sometimes get a feeling that we are having to fight with wooden rifles and pitchforks against the government juggernaut, I will try to dismiss them and use the modern weaponry of debate and opposition. The noble Baroness has given some reassurances, but they do not meet the general unease that runs through many of our queries about the distribution of powers. Power is a reality; it empowers those who can use it, who need to use it with humility, respect and care. Wherever it is being tossed around, acquired, redistributed, taken or given, we must be on our guard. Our parliamentary system has not been too bad at that over its lifetime and through its evolution. I was not saying that this provision was a passerelle. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay, was quite right if he thought I was comparing it to a passerelle, but I was adding it to the general bundle of propositions and provisions in the treaty and the Bill which seem to open doors rather than close them. Far from supporting the Prime Minister’s view that there will be no more change or institutional reorganisation in the European Union, they imply that there is going to be a lot more and that were are going to be watching and, I hope, debating and having some control and final parliamentary say over a whole series of movements of power upwards and maybe, as the noble Baroness was suggesting, downwards as well. That will be the day. We have not heard much about this recently but it used to be the dream of many modern reformers in the European Union that the acquis should be unravelled and revived, and that the acquis powers that have accumulated over two, three or four decades and belong to a different era should now be transferred back to the nation state. That would be the position of the real liberal moderniser in Europe today. About that we have heard nothing and certainly the treaty does nothing towards that end. It talks about subsidiarity. We hope that is going to work better than in the past but that is very different from what I am saying. We do not need in the modern age such a centralisation of powers and initiatives. We can live with more disparity. We heard the cries of the lawyers earlier that we had to have a harmony of legal authority in the ECJ and what chaos there would be without one supreme legal authority throughout the Union, obviously extending its powers now with the collapse of Pillar 3 into a single pillar. But wherever we can, and even against the instinct of the lawyers and other centralisers, we want to be looking the other way towards decentralisation and variety within the overall scope of the club that is the European Union which, contrary to constant speeches from over my right shoulder, we support and always have supported and believe is an immensely important part of the armoury and membership of this country in its pursuit of its international objectives. This debate is part of a broader scene which confirms that this Bill extends competences. The list is there. It extends the QMV areas to between 51 and 61—I forget the names. It extends the powers of the European Parliament, which badly needs to reform itself, if we read it aright. I would say, in coming to the end of our debates, it has been a bad day for parliaments and this Parliament and a good day for Executive power. I hope those who have done that task will reflect on what they have achieved. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.