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Europe in the World (EUC Report)

My Lords, I trust that your Lordships will welcome at least one contribution in this debate on Europe in the world from someone who wishes that the EU would live in the real world. If it did, it would drop all the ambitions contained in the report and dissolve itself into a free-trade area between consenting democracies as soon as possible, with foreign policy and defence left to those collaborating democracies. However, this is a deeply Euro-phile report which assumes that the EU should take on even more responsibility in the field of international affairs. I hope that your Lordships will not consider me too naughty if I say that that is not very surprising when one looks at the composition of the committee of your Lordships' House which compiled it, in which I fail to recognise a single declared Euro-sceptic. Quite a lot in the report coyly wonders whether the EU's recent communication and the proposals supported by the committee are in fact legal in the absence of the proposed EU constitution. I refer in particular to paragraphs 21, 22, 25, 35 and 138, which I do not have time to quote. My question for the Minister is, as usual, quite simple: what are the clauses in the existing treaty of Nice, being the legal basis for all EU activity, which justify the proposals that we are considering? I do not see them set out in the report. In anticipating the answer to that question, I remind the Minister of the written answers given by Mr Barosso, the President of the EU Commission,to Mr Daniel Hannan MEP on 20 March last year. Mr Hannan asked what were the legal bases for the European External Action Service and the European Defence Agency. Mr Barosso replied that, "““provision is made for the setting up of the European External Action Service by Article III-296(3) of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe””." In other words, the External Action Service is justified only by the constitution, which does not exist. Therefore, it is illegal. Does the Minister agree? If not, why not? Mr Barosso went on to tell Mr Hannan in the same answer that the legal base for the European Defence Agency was Article 14 of the treaty establishingthe European Union. The Minister will know thatArticle 14 only allows the Council to adopt joint actions in specific situations, and does not empower an agency to act generally. Can the Minister enlighten us as to the legal bases in the treaty of Nice which justify the proposals in the report? I look forward to his reply and wish him well.