European Affairs

I may give way later, if the hon. Gentleman will be patient. He did not allow me to intervene on him, and I have already allowed him to intervene on me once. I will allow him to intervene a second time shortly—and that is more generous than he was to me. The Conservatives' present policy has three elements. The first is to have referendums on future treaties, but they have not been clear as to which treaties. If the hon. Gentleman intervenes later, perhaps he will clarify that. Will that policy apply to accession treaties? If there are accession treaties for Croatia, Iceland or Turkey, will they require referendums? As far as we know they will, and it would be bizarre if the enlargement of the European Union and the accession of those countries were to be determined by a referendum. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be able to answer that question when I allow him to intervene. We want know what the test for a referendum will be. Will it be any change in the European treaties, or just a significant constitutional change? What does the referendum pledge amount to? It is not clear at the moment. The hon. Gentleman also talked about a sovereignty Bill. He needs to go back to his political textbooks and understand constitutional principles. A state either has parliamentary sovereignty as a constitutional principle or a written constitution. He talks about the German constitutional court as his model, but that court can operate in a meaningful way on European matters because Germany has a written constitution. The Bundestag and the Bundesrat do not have parliamentary sovereignty as we know it in this country. If the Conservative position is not only that they want a sovereignty Bill, but that they want a written constitution, that is a consistent policy, although it is also a major change in the Conservative approach to the constitution—and one that we would welcome. We have advocated the introduction of a written constitution for many years, so we could have a sovereignty Bill that had some meaning. The hon. Gentleman's Bill would be meaningless unless he also wanted a written constitution.