European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, some rather intemperate accusations have been made, such as a ““breach of trust with the British people””. Let us examine exactly what happened. My right honourable friend Tony Blair made a promise on 20 April 2004 that I believe was fundamentally wrong, and I said so at the time in your Lordships’ House. Nevertheless, that promise was made, but in the context of there being a constitutional treaty that would be a constitution for Europe. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, that when he goes through the minutiae of comparing texts, he should bear in mind that there is a fundamental difference between something called a constitution, which is a constitution and has the role of a constitution, and an amending treaty to the existing one. I will give evidence not only of my views but of views that other Governments have taken. For example, the Government of Denmark—much admired in some of our discussions in Committee and on Report by some of the Eurosceptics in this House—were committed to a referendum on the original constitutional treaty. Denmark was one of the member states that had clearly made that the case. In the discussion following the collapse and withdrawal of the constitutional treaty and then the negotiation of the amending treaty, the Danish Justice Ministry reported to the Danish Parliament on the reform treaty. Its view in its published legal analysis was that under the Danish constitution, if powers are transferred to an international organisation by a treaty, that treaty can be ratified only by referendum. It concluded, however, that: "““for Denmark, the Lisbon Treaty does not transfer new powers to the Union. On this basis, the Justice Ministry concludes””—" and advised Parliament— "““that Denmark can ratify the Lisbon Treaty by normal procedure””." So the Danish Government, the Danish Parliament and the Danish people took exactly the same decision as we are being recommended to take in this country. It is a question not of a breach of trust but of a complete change of circumstances. As we heard in Committee—I do not propose to go through it in detail—that is not only the question for ourselves and Denmark; it is also the position in relation to the Netherlands, one of the two countries which, following its then constitutional obligation, had a referendum on the constitutional treaty, which was rejected by the people in that referendum. The Netherlands then referred the new amending treaty to Dutch constitutional experts. The Council of State, having examined the changes, reported that: "““Unlike the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, it””—" that is, the reform treaty— "““provides no arguments for a gradual expansion of the EU towards a more explicit state or federation””." On the basis of that, the council concluded that there was no need, and no constitutional obligation, to have a referendum. We are in the company of good parliamentary systems and good systems of democratic control in those national parliaments—Denmark, much admired by Eurosceptics, and the Netherlands, a good and fundamentally democratic country—and we are following precisely principles and practice. The amendment is an exercise in mischief-making that should be rejected by the House.