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Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

That illustrates how strongly Members in all parts of the House feel about this. I will not come to any immediate judgment about my hon. Friend’s proposal, certainly not without consulting my Front-Bench colleagues, but I think that if the Government were defeated on their motion they would have to consider all the options, including the House sitting as a Committee of the whole House in the normal way, and including the Opposition’s proposals. They would do well to do so, because many of their own Members are deeply concerned about what they have proposed. Let me illustrate the importance of additional time in just one or two of the areas where our amendment proposes it. First, we propose two days of debate on justice and home affairs. The Government have allocated one day in their procedure motion, but we believe that two days is the bare minimum for such an important subject. The treaty would introduce wide and profound changes to the EU’s powers in terms of justice and home affairs. The measures on justice and home affairs are these: a common EU policy on asylum, immigration and external border control"““based on solidarity between member states””" in article 61 of the new treaty on the functioning of the EU; in article 61g, measures by qualified majority voting to ensure administrative co-operation between national police and criminal justice authorities and the Commission; and in article 61h, a move to full co-decision on investigating financial links to terrorism—co-decision, I need hardly remind the House, would mean the Commission having the sole right of initiative over legislation and the European Parliament amending or blocking legislation. In article 62, there is a common policy on visas. Article 63 sets out the common asylum policy in more detail. It includes for the first time the basis for ““uniform standards”” rather than minimum standards for asylum—a change that was unsuccessfully opposed by the British Government while the constitution was being negotiated. In article 63a, the new common immigration policy is similarly set out, with new powers for the EU on legislation concerning third country nationals and the abolition of national vetoes—again, unsuccessfully opposed by the Government while the negotiations were going on. Article 63b contains the principle of fair sharing of responsibility over asylum, including its financial implications for member states, with potentially far-reaching consequences. These are all meant to be debated in one day—tomorrow. Articles 65 and 68 deal with civil justice, giving the EU new powers to pass laws on ““effective access to justice””,"““development of alternative methods of dispute settlement””" and"““support for the training of the judiciary and judicial staff””—" powers that the Government, during the drafting process, were concerned would compromise judicial independence but have now agreed to. All that alone would merit at least a day’s debate—one might think much more than that—but it does not stop there. Articles 69a to 69g revolutionise the EU’s role in criminal justice and policing. They give the European Court of Justice full jurisdiction over that area and extend the European Commission’s right to initiate legislation at member states’ expense, as well as widening the EU’s remit in this area to include mutual admissibility of evidence, rights of individuals in criminal procedure, and rights of victims of crime—and, of course, national vetoes are abolished. The EU would be able to pass laws establishing minimum definitions of criminal offences and sanctions in eight areas. Needless to say, the Government had objections that were overridden while that was being negotiated.