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Treaty of Lisbon (No. 5)

I think that that is the intention of many of the drafters of the constitution that has become the treaty. It may not be the intention of members of the Government, although it is certainly the intention of one. That brings me to paragraph 3 of article 48 of the treaty, which allows the Council to move to qualified majority voting in any of the remaining areas covered by unanimity, including foreign policy. That means that the extension of QMV to foreign policy embodied in the treaty could be taken much further without any other treaty having to be negotiated or ratified. It is almost needless to say that that provision, too, was opposed by the Government. The right hon. Member for Rotherham, if I may mention him again, said:"““We think that a self-amending constitutional treaty does not make a lot of sense””,—[Official Report, Standing Committee on the Intergovernmental Conference, 20 October 2003; c. 20.]" but it turns out that that is now part of the treaty.