European Council Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

European Council

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts
Monday 19th October 2015

(9 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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As I said in my statement, we need to achieve the best of both worlds in which we recognise the advantages of being in a reformed European Union while ensuring that this is a membership and a type of European Union that suit us. If we look at what has been achieved in the past, through maintaining our own currency and having a single market, we can see that that is the sort of approach we need for the future.

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Portrait Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)
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It is now almost 12 years since I chaired a group examining the role of national Parliaments, which came up with the idea of a red card system. It is good to see some ideas being recycled. We also concluded that unless there was a mechanism whereby national Parliaments were co-ordinated—a kind of COSAC but without MEPs—any such system would be utterly meaningless. Will the Prime Minister tell us what negotiations he has had on the development of such networks?

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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The right hon. Lady is absolutely right; it has taken far too long to get this sort of change in place. This is, however, exactly the sort of change that the British process of renegotiation and a referendum is putting squarely on the table. I shall look carefully at her suggestion as we go into the detailed phase of the negotiations to ensure that we get the right sort of deal.