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European Council

The detail of what was agreed obviously has to be negotiated at the intergovernmental conference, but the key elements have been agreed. In relation to the language in the constitutional treaty about free and undistorted competition, it was somewhat bizarre to meet people who said that they wanted the whole constitutional treaty to be scrapped, but that we should have preserved these particular words. I am afraid that, once vetoes went down from us in a whole series of areas, vetoes went down for others, but that is exactly why we had the legal protocol. The Commission lawyers have made it quite clear that they believe that their ability to act in the internal market is unfettered, unrestricted and unchanged as a result of this; that is important. In respect of the charter, it is not that we are against any of the fundamental rights. Indeed, we have such rights in UK law. We wanted to ensure, however, that there would be no question whatever of our being in a position where either the European Court of Justice or our own UK courts could use the charter of fundamental rights to extend or expand UK law, particularly in the labour market or the social sphere. I do not believe that that is the intention, but we need to bolt this down very clearly. We are able to do our own laws in our own way here, and that is the right thing. I understand why people are now asking whether we are against people’s fundamental rights. Of course we are not, but we believe that, in respect of the charter, it is better that those things are decided here.