European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I suggest that the noble Lord simply reads the treaty. It upholds the intrinsic sovereignty of the national state—the national entity. That is repeated throughout the treaty, as it was in the previous treaties. Those things are literally unaffected under international law by the treaty-making experience of history and by the ability of sovereign countries to decide to work together. They lose nothing, even at the margin of their intrinsic national sovereignty. They take sovereign decisions so to do, mostly through their parliamentary machinery—Ireland being the only exception this time, with a referendum on Thursday. I believe that about 14 years ago Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh paid a notable and interesting visit to the European Commission and other institutions in Brussels. Although no official report was made—it was a private visit—they were extremely interested, we understand, in these developments, which are a mirror image of the other kinds of international treaties that this country signs with other international bodies and that create ever-larger bodies as the membership of those particular entities increases. But, because of the closeness of working together under the European Union, it can be sometimes misunderstood, quite understandably, by people who have a more sceptical turn of mind such as the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, that that means somehow giving up your own intrinsic power. That is not the case and never has been. It has always been envisaged that these are sovereign member states working together. In fact, robust Parliaments elsewhere have not seen a single amendment proposed reflecting the anxieties of the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, on these matters. Ultimately, it comes into the realms of Euro myths. I was chairman of the European Movement in Britain when Giscard d’Estaing was chairman of the whole European Movement throughout Europe. I remember vividly how we decided to have a kind of contest whereby people in various member states could submit myth stories that they thought was true, including, for example, myths about straight bananas, blue tomatoes and a wonderful panoply of stories. We remember with great affection the Daily Express headline 20 years ago, ““English student killed by German thunderstorm””. The British press has not changed much because it still writes stories like that. According to my contacts with Giscard d’Estaing’s staff in those days, not a single suggestion that was submitted to any national European Movement, or submitted to the British European Movement, by any of the anti-Europeans turned out to be correct. All stories were looked at carefully, including stories about hairnets for fishermen or not carrying condoms on fishing boats. All that rubbish was investigated thoroughly time and time again, and not a single so-called myth story was true. The heads of state of the republics and the monarchies in the European Union are sacrosanct. They belong to the national entity, which is a national member state fully sovereign in its fundamentals all the way down to the depths of its local political society. That is not in any way affected. I hope that—after the profound debates we had on such an important subject previously and in congratulating, without embarrassing I hope, the Leader of the House on a positive result in that case—this amendment will not be pressed to any suggested vote.