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European Union (Amendment) Bill

I fear that I have to disagree with the hon. Gentleman. The significance of the words that we have been discussing—““contribuent”” or ““contribute””, and ““shall””—relates to the arena in which they are supposed to operate. On top of all the points that my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) made, we need to concentrate on the words"““contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union””," because essentially what is being said relates to the implementation of the treaties to achieve the functioning of the European Union. That in turn goes straight back to sections 2 and 3 of the European Communities Act 1972, which is the mechanism through which we carry out the provisions of the treaties by implementing them in our law, subject to the fact that European law shall prevail, through the European Court of Justice, in that interpretation.