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Treaty of Lisbon (No. 4)

I shall give way in just a moment. We have heard before, and again today, that none of this matters. The right hon. Member for Leicester, West (Ms Hewitt) referred to the changes as cosmetic, but she is wrong: this does matter. We have heard that whether words are in article 3 of the treaty or in a protocol at the back is irrelevant, but it is not. The change of direction represented by the symbolic relegation of the endorsement of undistorted competition from the opening articles of the treaty to a protocol at the back does matter, and those who fought for it know that. It matters because if Europe is to prosper, much work remains to be done on the completion of a single, open and competitive market; it matters because of the political signal sent and received about the future direction of EU economic policy and its subordination to social policy; and it matters because of the legal significance of the treaties in the EU's system of jurisprudence and, in turn, the impact on how our own courts interpret the law.