---

Debate on the Address

My Lords, I join others in very warmly welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Bolton, to her important portfolio. I am also delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Malloch-Brown, is winding up the debate. We were working colleagues about a decade ago in the World Bank—in fact, he was my superior. I am delighted and quite amused that once again he will be having the last word after I have had my say. It is great to have him with us. Many noble Lords have spoken about the reform treaty in the course of this very long and varied debate. It will be no surprise to any of you that I want to make that the theme of my remarks. At the outset, I emphasise that I have absolutely no intention of arguing the merits or demerits of the treaty. That would be wholly incompatible with being chairman of an all-party committee which is already engaged in an in-depth and thoroughly objective assessment of the impact of this treaty on the United Kingdom and on the EU as a whole if it were ratified by the member states. I want to be quite clear about this. There are those who have expressed surprise and disappointment that the Select Committee has not produced a report comparing the reform treaty text with that of the now defunct constitutional treaty, as the European Scrutiny Committee in another place has recently done. There is, of course, a long-established practice in your Lordships’ House of complementing, not duplicating, the work of Commons committees. But quite apart from that, we felt strongly that to make a comparison between the constitutional treaty and the reform treaty would draw us into the domestic political argument over whether ratification of the new treaty should be subject to a referendum. We considered that to be wholly outside our terms of reference. There was an equally compelling reason for our rejection of that proposal. We simply do not agree with those who assert that whether or not the reform treaty is substantially equivalent to the constitutional treaty is of the highest constitutional significance. On the contrary, it is our view that that question is only of political significance relevant to the arguments being advanced both for and against the holding of a referendum. What is of undoubted constitutional significance is the contrast between the existing position and what would follow from the coming into force of the treaty following ratification. In light of that, your Lordships’ Select Committee decided that the best service it could render the House was to conduct a rigorous and detailed impact assessment, based on the treaty text agreed at the 18 October informal summit, to be carried out through our policy-based sub-committees, of the effect of the treaty changes in their final form on the United Kingdom and on the EU as a whole. The Select Committee will assess the institutional changes with the exception of the creation of the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy which will be scrutinised by our Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy Sub-Committee. We plan to publish the consolidated assessment in advance of any ratification Bill coming before your Lordships' House, in the event that the treaty is signed at the 13 December European Council. Our sole objective is to produce a report that can prove useful to all participants in the debate. We shall be looking principally at the treaty itself, with the UK's opt-ins and opt-outs treated separately. With regard to the latter, we shall explain where opt-outs are possible, and what would be the implications of not opting in. We will, in particular, seek to probe in detail the effectiveness of the Government's red lines, including, of course, the provision that national security remains a matter for member states. Opt-ins in freedom, security and justice matters will be subjected to close scrutiny, as will be the United Kingdom’s position regarding the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. We shall also look closely at any provision made by the Government to implement parliamentary involvement in passerelle provisions which enable qualified majority voting to be extended without treaty amendment, a matter on which the noble Lord, Lord Williamson of Horton, has already expressed interest. I hope that noble Lords will agree that that is precisely what our Select Committee and its sub-committees should be doing. Work is already under way, and on Thursday last we published a preliminary report setting out our work programme on the treaty and publishing some evidence already taken from our permanent representative to the EU, as well as from the head of the Commission's legal service, from the office of the EU Commission vice-president in charge of relations with national parliaments, and from one of the three MEPs who represented the European Parliament in the intergovernmental conference on the treaty. That is just the beginning. The Select Committee and its sub-committees are now fully engaged in carrying forward this very important inquiry. We are asking interested parties within and widely outside Parliament to put their views directly to our sub-committees and to the Select Committee. On Tuesday of last week, and leading the pack, our Law and Institutions Sub-Committee—chaired, as noble Lords know, by one of our Law Lords—which will bear a heavy burden in this inquiry, published its call for evidence, seeking a broad spectrum of views on the impact of the reform treaty in the areas of freedom, security and justice. Meanwhile, the regular scrutiny of EU documents, particularly draft legislation, continues, as it must. In addition, a dozen parallel inquiries are currently under way, such as those into the functioning of the single market, the EU's relationship with Russia, the future of the common agricultural policy, and the European external borders agency. Ahead of us lie the Commission's annual legislative and work programme and the annual policy strategy. Both will, as usual, be carefully scrutinised and reported on to this House. We will, of course, on behalf of the national parliament, be contributing to the European Union's special 2008-09 review of the Union's budgeting system. I remind your Lordships that relations between the national parliaments and the Commission have been markedly improved by a commitment made by Commission President Barroso, enshrined in the conclusions of the June 2006 European Council. The Commission has committed itself to go beyond the formal obligation to respond to national parliamentary scrutiny of compliance with the subsidiarity and proportionality principles in the framing of EU legislation. Last June, President Barroso unilaterally committed the Commission to respond directly to views conveyed to it by national parliaments on the substance of Commission proposals as well as on the issue of competence. Your Lordships' Select Committee is taking full advantage of this development and the Commission has been duly responding directly to our committee. Indeed, we are also now receiving comments from the Commission Vice-President in charge of relations with national parliaments on reports of the Select Committee which contain recommendations for EU action, or, in some cases, EU restraint. So we have our work cut out for us. I tell your Lordships, not for the first time, that but for the rich pool of expertise and experience to be found in this House, and the willingness of some 80 Members of your Lordships’ House to give so much of their time, this work simply could not be undertaken. I am truly grateful to them. I am sure the whole House feels equal gratitude. On a personal note, perhaps I may take this opportunity to thank the House very warmly for having done me the honour of entrusting to me for one more Session the chairmanship of the Select Committee. With the reform treaty, in particular, we shall be very busy indeed during this Session. I trust that the fruits of our work will prove useful to your Lordships as this House deliberates the United Kingdom's place in the European Union and in the wider world.