European Union: Justice and Home Affairs

Lord Bowness Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bowness (Con)]

My Lords, I shall not seek to deal with all the points that have been raised by my former noble friend Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Suffice it to say that I am not surprised that he did not want to go into details, because most of the propaganda that comes from his party is pretty light on detail and pretty light on telling people how things actually are.

I am sorry to say that I approach the subject of the opt-out, to which I wish to speak, with a feeling of apprehension, if not depression. It is now more than 12 months since I was a member of the sub-committee of the European Union Select Committee dealing with the law, now chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, so I am perhaps not as up to date with all the detail as the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Hannay. However, I am bound to observe that the first report of your Lordships’ House was published in April 2013 and debated in July 2013, after a late government response and the issue of what was a truly dreadful Explanatory Memorandum. The report and the debate, in April and July respectively, emphasised the need to ensure that, since 35 out of the 130-odd measures were, in the Government’s own words, in the national interest and we wished to rejoin them, we did not find ourselves in a place at the time of the opt-out where we had not secured our re-entry to those 35 measures.

A year after the original report and nearly 10 months after the debate, with great respect to my noble friend on the Front Bench, I do not feel much wiser as to where we are. However, one thing I know is that the impact assessments in respect of those measures that we wish to rejoin—never mind the impact assessments, if at all, of those that we do not intend to rejoin—are still awaited. In that dreadful Explanatory Memorandum, there was a reference to an impact assessment, which I will read:

“At his appearance before the European Scrutiny Committee on 28 November”—

that has to have been in 2012—

“James Brokenshire gave an undertaking that the Government will provide an Impact Assessment on the final package of measures that the Government wishes to rejoin, should the Government decide to exercise the opt-out”.

That is one of the reasons why I feel a bit depressed, because still there is no sign of that impact assessment as more and more months go by. Soon we will be in the summer and there will be a new Commission, and probably too soon it will be 1 December, so I am concerned as to what progress is being made.

I understand that my noble friends on the Front Bench cannot give details of the negotiations. However, perhaps it is worth noting what my right honourable friend the Home Secretary said in the other place on 7 April in reply to Mr Keith Vaz. This was confirmed in a Written Answer given to my noble friend Lord Inglewood earlier this week. She said:

“Detailed and constructive discussions are taking place with the European Commission and other member states”,

and that the Government are keen to avoid the possibility of an operational gap,

“that will ensue if we have not settled the matter before 1 December, when … the UK’s opt-out takes full effect. Our aim is therefore to reach an ‘in principle’ deal well ahead of that date”.

What do we mean by “well ahead” of that date? In that debate in the other place, Mr Keith Vaz also put this question to the Home Secretary:

“Has she seen reference made to a note by the Greek presidency that was published by Statewatch—it was leaked; it was not published by the presidency—that the United Kingdom needs to have its re-opting list agreed by June 2014; in other words, before the parliamentary recess? Has she seen that note and is that the case? Do we have to get all our priorities ready by then?”—[Official Report, Commons, 7/4/14; col. 27.]

No definitive response was given to that question.

Later in the debate, my right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor talked about the second Motion to be put to Parliament. He said:

“We will come back to the House at the conclusion of the negotiations with the Commission and the Council to offer the House the further opportunity to endorse or reject what we are doing. If this House rejects what we are doing, clearly it will not be possible for us to return to the Commission and simply override the view of this House”.—[Official Report, Commons, 7/4/14; col. 90.]

When it is asked whether the Motion would be amendable, the question of the details of the Motion is deferred to a later date. Faced with the summer, the new Commission and the date of 1 December, I fear for the progress and the time that this whole exercise is taking.

I will admit that I have always considered the whole exercise to be expensive, time-consuming and, in terms of our relations with our EU partners, relatively pointless, since the Government’s own Explanatory Memorandum did not identify any one of these 130-odd measures as being detrimental to the national interest. I also note that my party, which I support in the vast majority of instances, says that its priorities for Europe include fighting to make our,

“police forces and justice systems able to protect British citizens, unencumbered by unnecessary interference from the European institutions, including the European Court of Human Rights”—

which of course is nothing to do with the EU in this conversation—and is seemingly ignoring all the evidence that has been given by police and legal sources supporting many of these measures. I wonder whether we are indulging in some kind of ritual dance involving opting out and then opting back in so that at some time in the future we can negotiate to come out again. I hope that my noble friend will understand my concerns, my apprehension and my depression, and why I am probably very confused.