European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I would like to address a couple of points raised by this Prayer. First, is it reasonably justified for the European Parliament to have taken the view, and to have persuaded the member states of that view, that the dual mandate is incompatible with an effective European Parliament? Other noble Lords, such as the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, know far more about the European Parliament than I do, but I believe that it is entirely justified. The work of the European Parliament has increased a great deal over recent years and is still increasing. It is basically a full-time job. It is right that the member states have recognised that by saying that the dual mandate is no longer acceptable. I am sure that constitutional arguments on that point can be raised by the noble Lord, Lord Norton, but I merely ask whether it is reasonable for the European Parliament and the collectivity of the European Governments to conclude that they want full-time Members of the European Parliament. I answer that with a certain and resounding yes. Probably no parliament has suffered more from dual, treble or quadruple mandates than the European Parliament did in its early years, with people coming in for a very brief time, then going away again and treating it with little respect. Therefore, I think that the move to ban the dual mandate was absolutely right. Then there is the question of its impact on Members of this House. On that I merely say that I think the case has been rather misrepresented. The regulations do not exclude somebody from this House permanently, as it were; they merely exclude them temporarily while they are Members of the European Parliament. They do not prevent them becoming a Member of this House again when the fixed period leave of absence, which after all is only a very minor change to the existing rule on leave of absence, comes to an end. Therefore, I consider that it is entirely reasonable for the Government to have acted in this way. I do not want to enter into all the details of the drafting. The two large issues are: is the European Parliament right in thinking that it needs to have full-time Members and is it reasonable that a Member of this House who wants to become a Member of the European Parliament should be able to do so while conforming to the rules laid down by the European Parliament? I answer yes to both those questions and no to the Motion that has been moved.