Oral Answers to Questions

Steve McCabe Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

6. What recent assessment he has made of the likelihood of EU treaty change before 2017.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

A number of ideas being considered in European capitals would require treaty change. The President of the Commission has made proposals requiring treaty change, and the fiscal compact’s signatories hope to see the compact put into the treaties before January 2018. Europe is changing because of the eurozone crisis, and we should expect that process to include treaty change.

[Steve McCabe]

Does that mean that negotiations have actually commenced, and if so, when do they have to be concluded? What is the absolute deadline to meet the commitment for a referendum in 2017?

[Mr Hague]

No. Clearly, negotiations have not commenced, although the Government continue at all times to work on seeking a more competitive European Union that is less regulatory, and in any such negotiation we of course want an EU that will be more accountable to national Parliaments as well. The position of the Conservative party, rather than of Her Majesty’s Government as a whole, is to implement the European Union (Referendum) Bill, which was passed in this House on Friday, and that means a referendum by the end of 2017.