European Union Bill

Lord Pearson of Rannoch Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kerr of Kinlochard]

The number of judges in the court is defined in the treaty. So changing the number of judges in the court requires an amendment to the treaty. There is no doubt about that. Whether that would require a referendum—which is the point that the noble Lord, Lord Howell, was debating with me before dinner—is another question. He may well be right: it depends on whether you view an increase in the number of judges as an increase in the power of the court. If you did, then, under this Bill, you would require a referendum; if you did not, then, under this Bill, you would not. However, it is certainly a treaty amendment.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

Before the Minister replies, can I ask the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, whether, with his great knowledge of these matters, anything can be done about the quality of these judges? Is it not true that none of them would pass muster as a judge in even the lowest and least distinguished of British courts? Is there anything we can do about that under the treaty? Who decides it?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I think the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, is not going to answer. I had something in my notes about how the European Union attracts pedants and conspiracy theorists, but I thought I would not use that on this occasion. As the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, said, we all know that we are sometimes a little pedantic on this. I am a Eurobore of some considerable standing, having helped to write several textbooks on the subject and struggled each time to remember how the treaty articles have been renumbered and so on. We could go on for a great deal of time.

We have heard one or two conspiracy theories this afternoon and this evening. Noble Lords may be aware that I received an even better conspiracy theory today from Migration Watch suggesting that the increased migration under the previous Labour Government was a deliberate attempt to increase the ethnic vote, which would split down for Labour. That is an even better conspiracy theory than anything that I have ever heard from the noble Lords, Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Lord Stoddart of Swindon. I encourage the members of the Labour Party to have a go at that when they have appreciated it fully.

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[Lord Liddle]

The noble Baroness has made a helpful point. My fear in all of this is that what we are doing through adopting this very restrictive position is putting British Ministers in a position where they would want to agree things that they regard as being good for Britain and they are going to have to say no because they believe that the referendum lock would apply. That is not very sensible where the issues are not of great concern to the public, where there is not real competence creep and where the benefits of change could be quite considerable.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, is that not one of the disadvantages of this amendment? It does nothing to prevent competence creep. If the noble Lord does not agree with that, would he care to comment on the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, earlier this evening and indeed by myself about the way the European Court of Justice has permitted and supported the abuse of Article 308 of the treaty of Nice, as it then was, which allowed Brussels to get involved only,

“in the course of the operation of the common market”?

That was the wording in the original treaty, which lasted right through until Lisbon when it was strengthened in the Court’s favour.

The noble Lord, Lord Waddington, mentioned aid to Outer Mongolia as being justified by the Court in this matter. There was urban renewal in Northern Ireland, the co-ordination of our social security systems—quite a big one that—the prevention and aftercare of terrorism, establishing the EU’s agency for fundamental rights and a £235 million “information campaign”, which to those of us who understand these things is of course propaganda.

The European Court has been able to abuse the treaties in these ways and there are many other clauses such as flexibility clauses which the European Union has abused. Indeed, in 1996 when the use of Article 308 was taken to the Luxembourg Court, in its judgment the Court said that the point of this article was to pursue the interests of the Union. In its judgment it did not mention the first words of the clause:

“If in the course of the operation of the common market”.

I really do not see how this amendment is going to do anything to stand up to that sort of behaviour. There is no appeal against the judgments of this so-called Court, the quality of whose judges, I repeat and I am not trying to be amusing, is extremely low and unacceptable. I really do not see why we should have anything in this Bill which enforces the powers of this particular creation. As the noble Lord said when he introduced his remarks, those of us of a Eurosceptic bent would rather they had nothing to do with us or our law at all.

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[Lord Risby]

My Lords, essentially the amendments deal with the removal of a referendum provision in three areas which are in our vital national interest—something on which we all agree—namely, the single market, EU competition and state aid. Of course, these are areas where the EU should concentrate, particularly the single market, which is indeed in our national interest. However, this is all possible under the existing treaties and, if sensible actions are taken under the existing treaties, there can be no possible objection to this, and the Bill does not prevent this happening. That is the essential difference and I think that there is some misunderstanding. The Bill does not prevent EU action where the treaties allow it. It is only in areas where a judgment would impact on us seriously that a treaty change might be required, and in those circumstances we would come back to the issue of whether or not to have a referendum. In this House we all agree about the importance of the single market. If, for example, there was a proposal concerning the labour market that could have an impact on this country by undoing much of the trade union and employment law reform, that would have an enormous impact not only on this country but on the entire European Union. In those circumstances, it would be absolutely legitimate to consider the possibility of a referendum.

Finally, in a very interesting speech, the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson—and I am sorry that he is not here—made the point that so far as he could make out the coalition Government were being entirely pragmatic. All the discussions that I have had with others have indicated that our member state friends—officials and politicians—would agree with that. Quite frankly, it is in the context of trying to defuse the difficulty in this country towards the European Union that this proposal is made. In that context, it is important in very specific circumstances affecting our national interest, including the single market, that an option is available for a referendum, although it does not necessarily have to be used because it is covered under the existing treaties.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords—

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I fear that we have been following a number of hypothetical will o’ the wisps around here. We have heard, “It’s possible, it might be the case, we can’t think of an example but at some point perhaps the powers might prove not to be adequate. We haven’t used many of the powers and competences yet; nevertheless we might not have enough”. I remind the noble Lord, Lord Liddle—perhaps he even wrote it—of an article in the Telegraph in which David Miliband, our previous Foreign Secretary, said:

“One of the greatest blessings of the Lisbon Treaty is that it brings to an end institutional navel gazing ... the EU [will have] 10 years to prove itself”,

without further treaty change. That is where we are now. The noble Lord is insisting on standing improperly. Although I did not wish to give way, I shall give way to him once.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, I could speak to this amendment before the noble Lord sits down, but if he is going to reply to the debate, it might be convenient if he hears what I have to say on this amendment. I think that that is in order.

I oppose this amendment, and I am afraid that I have to go further and say that I am not among those who think that the single market has been an undiluted success for this country. I shall be speaking in much greater detail to that fact under Amendment 41, so I will not detain your Lordships long this evening.

I am also aware that there are dying embers in the Conservative Party—shared by the noble Lord, Lord Davies, no doubt from his time on those Benches—which hold that the single market is one of the Conservative Party’s greatest achievements. I can deal with a few facts briefly to show that the single market has been a disaster for this country. You only have to take the report of the Treasury, Global Europe: full employment Europe, signed by Mr Gordon Brown himself, which estimated that EU overregulation, which comes to us entirely thanks to the single market, costs us some 6 per cent of GDP per annum, or £84 billion a year. It handicaps our exporters, and what we are about to see hitting the City of London from the new supervision bodies coming from Brussels under the single market will clearly be disastrous.

Then there is the very simple point that only 9 per cent of our GDP goes in trade with clients in the European Union; 11 per cent goes to the rest of the world and 80 per cent stays here in the domestic economy. Yet, 91 per cent—everything in the domestic economy that is exported overseas—is controlled by the single market.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I gave way to what I understood was an intervention from the noble Lord. He previously gave no indication that he wished to speak to this amendment. I had certainly not seen him and I was looking directly at him. I think that he is being discourteous.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

I did not stand up because I was waiting for my turn. I moved to speak on several occasions. Obviously I am in the hands of your Lordships, but I understand that we are entitled to speak to these amendments in their order on the Marshalled List, and I have rather different points from those of the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, as I regard the single market’s disadvantages as rather different.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I wonder whether the noble Lord will take his seat. We are not on a deadline tonight but are seeking to carry out the proper debating role of this House. As the noble Lord will know more than most, in Committee he may speak after the Minister, unlike on Report. Therefore, it might be courteous, since the Minister had started to speak, to allow him to continue to give his response. Of course, the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, may speak after that. My noble friend indicated that he did look around. Indeed, I was at the door of the Chamber at that point, so he was not intending any discourtesy. Perhaps the noble Lord might allow the Minister to complete his speech, because he gave way only on the basis that it was an intervention, and he had not finished speaking himself. Perhaps that is the way to proceed. The noble Lord, Lord Pearson, will have a full opportunity to speak, as he has on other occasions.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

I merely wish to say that I wanted to speak to this amendment from the start. It is not my fault if the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, did not catch my eye before he stood up. I am always a very well behaved boy in your Lordships’ House, and with the extreme charm with which the Chief Whip has put her request, I shall not continue with my remarks now. But they are important because they prove that the single market has been a disaster for this country. I shall come back to that under Amendment 41, if I may. In the mean time, the Minister can feel free to carry on. I did not realise that we were on a close deadline.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

We are not necessarily on a very tight deadline, but it is customary to move towards a close. However, I was speaking. I thought that the noble Lord was trying to intervene and gave way to him as an intervention. We clearly misunderstood where we were.

I was saying that, speaking in another place, David Miliband also said in November 2009:

“The Lisbon Treaty provides the Union with a stable and lasting institutional framework. We expect no change in the foreseeable future, so that the Union will be able to fully concentrate on addressing the concrete challenges ahead”.—[Official Report, Commons, 23/11/09; col. 273.]

I agree with those pragmatic, practical sentences. We all recognise that there are differences of view within all parties about European matters. The noble Lord, Lord Davies of Stamford, has moved from one party with a very wide range of views on European integration to another, as he well knows. I shall not respond further to his slightly hobnail-booted references to relations within the current coalition.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I return to where we were on the amendment, as on some of the others that follow. Here we have a Government who are playing a positive and practical part within the EU within its existing, but considerably expanded, competences. I have looked at Articles 102 to 106 and Articles 114 and 116. I totally failed to find the relevance of Article 308, which, in my copy of the treaty, is about the European Investment Bank, but perhaps when we get to debate on Article 41, the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, will tell us what that is all about.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

I was referring to Article 308 as it was under the Nice treaty. Before that it was Article 257 in the original treaty of Rome.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I will not pursue that further.

The question is: does the Bill tie the hands of the British Government against British national interests? That is the fear which the noble Lord appears to have; I have to say that it is an irrational fear. There is a great deal that the British Government can do to pursue our national interests within the European Union within its present competences, and we are doing so.

The noble Baroness, Lady Symons, gave us an early version of her speech on the question of enhanced co-operation before dinner. As it happens, the United Kingdom Government are leading in early enhanced co-operation. The Franco-British treaty puts us very much in the lead on European defence co-operation. It is not what some other members of the European Union would have liked to put in the treaty, which was a commitment to have a European army, but of course they did not know what they meant by having a European army: it is much more practical co-operation on military affairs. That is the way forward, it seems to us.

On the following amendments from the noble Lord, I see nothing in the Bill which cramps the British Government in pursuing practical and effective British interests within the European Union in strengthening the single market. We now know that the single market has not been fully implemented. Some of what was happening in Greece was appalling; I have just been to southern Italy and it was quite easy to see parts of the single market which are not enforced there, but the powers are there. The single market needs to be more effectively enforced. There are clauses in the Lisbon treaty which talk about expanding the single market into services. There are some very tough clauses on state aids and competition law. We have those powers, and we do not need to spend more time chasing constitutional change before we begin effectively to make the European Union work better.