My Lords, I shall say a few brief words in support of the amendment that the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, has moved this evening. Before I say anything further, I should bring the attention of your Lordships’ House to the interests I have declared in the register. I am the chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association here in the United Kingdom.
I do not think there is any doubt at all that membership of the Euratom treaty has brought very significant benefits to the UK nuclear industry and, in doing so, has served some vital strategic interests of our country. Unlike membership of the European Union itself, which remains a polarising and deeply divisive issue in our country, I have not heard anyone mount any argument at all—ever, at any point in this process—in favour of leaving the Euratom treaty. I get the very strong sense that the position of Her Majesty’s Government has come very late in this process. Having looked at how these two treaties have become intertwined in recent decades, the Attorney-General, giving advice to the Cabinet, has clearly favoured separation entirely, so that as we leave the European Union we face this rather grim and desperate situation where we might find ourselves without any internationally recognised nuclear safeguards operating in the UK.
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As the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, has rightly said, if we were to find ourselves in that position, it would not be comparable, for example, to other aspects of the UK economy. If we leave on only WTO terms, clearly trade would continue. In the international nature of the nuclear industry, that would not be so. If we were to leave without having these alternative arrangements in place, it would not be possible for companies in the United States, Canada, Japan, India, South Korea or many of our nuclear allies, not least our European friends and partners, to continue to trade with us in nuclear goods and services. We tend to exaggerate for a living in this House—we cannot help ourselves, bless us; many of us are former politicians—but this would be a catastrophe for the industry and we should be under no illusion about that.
My understanding is that the Government have come to the view that we need to disentangle ourselves from Euratom as well as the institutions of the European Union for the very simple reason that they have, over time, become inextricably linked. Given that the Government’s two objectives in this process of leaving the European Union seem to be absolutely to end the jurisdiction of the European Court and to end the free movement of labour, I perfectly understand the Government’s position. However, in the strict context of the Euratom treaty and its relationship to the European Union treaty, we need to be clear about two things. This would give only a very limited jurisdiction. If we were to stay in Euratom for some indeterminate period until we can negotiate these alternative arrangements, the ECJ would have only a very limited jurisdiction, specifically on the issue of nuclear goods and services. If we think, as we should, that the nuclear industry is an international trade by its very nature and definition and is absolutely pieced together and hung together by international agreements, it is no great breach of principle or faith to accept that the ECJ should, for a period of time, have a continuing jurisdiction in these matters. I do not think that that would bring the house down.
Some in this House and outside are worried about the free movement of labour. Again, we should remind ourselves, in the context of the Euratom treaty, that
free movement of labour applies only to nuclear specialists working in nuclear installations. We do not need to fear, in my view, some back-door invasion of mass migration because we remain for some longer period of time a member of the Euratom treaty. I am clearly arguing that we should take our time before we leave the Euratom treaty. I do not believe that there is any legal case, and certainly no economic or political case, for linking the process of leaving the European Union with the process of leaving the Euratom treaty. I simply do not accept that.
I would like some clarification from the Minister today, if it is possible, about what conversations Her Majesty’s Government have already had with the European Atomic Energy Community to explore what a transitional arrangement might look like, because a lot does depend on getting this right. Is it the Government’s case that they intend to serve notice to leave the Euratom treaty at the same time as leaving the European Union? I do not believe, and the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, made this point, that there is any compelling legal case or reason why these two processes have to be conducted simultaneously. I believe that he was absolutely right to say to this House that we are going to make the job of leaving the European Union 10 times more difficult if we compress into that two-year period not just the enormous complexity of dealing with the European Union disengagement process and all that that means, but we have to negotiate simultaneously maybe 20 international nuclear co-operation agreements, replicate and devise in the UK a new system of nuclear installation inspection and safeguarding and secure the nuclear fuels that our current and future fleet will need to rely on in the future. Those matters are all covered today by the Euratom treaty, perfectly sensibly.
I do not believe that the Government are doing this because they want to leave the Euratom treaty. I believe that they are doing it because they believe that they have no other choice. I think they have a choice, which is to take their time on this and make sure that there is no cliff edge when we leave, because the consequences of leaving without these alternative arrangements in place would really be so serious for the nuclear industry as to raise a genuine question mark about its future in this country.