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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the wise humour of my noble friend Lord Ferrers. When the history of our times comes to be written, this momentous Bill will be recorded as surely one of the most cynical and deceitful proposals ever made to Parliament and the people of this country. Other noble Lords have illustrated how both the Government and the Liberal party promised a referendum on the constitutional treaty, realised that they would probably lose it and have continued to hide behind the fig leaf of an excuse that somehow the Lisbon treaty is different. Old true Liberals must be spinning in their tombs. But a referendum is needed not just because it was promised but because the British public, most of whom are not aware of the effect of the proposals, have never been consulted, let alone properly informed—a point well made by my noble friend Lord Ferrers. This Bill is not just about Europe’s constitution but the effect on our own constitution and the ultimate transfer of power and sovereignty which has been salami sliced from us over the last 30 years. The end of sovereignty is the end of democracy. This is the theme of my speech. It is important to look at what the Lisbon treaty does. It abolishes the European Union and replaces it with an entity which is actually a new body and, unlike the old, has an international legal personality. It can sign treaties and be represented on international organisations. This is the key that creates a political entity and the basis of statehood. In this respect it is totally different from previous treaties and it is a lie to say otherwise. It is a road that leads this country to be a province of the republic of Europe. National parliaments and foreign policy become subordinate. We become citizens of Europe and the position of the Queen is deeply compromised. We in Westminster may continue to strut the stage like peacocks but real power will have passed to the EU where every Community law takes primacy over our national laws. Foreign policy moves from our hands. I find it difficult to understand why so many Members of this House and the other place want to diminish the very powers they were elected to administer. They, of course, live the eternal dream that somehow tucking ourselves under a huge EU umbrella will lead to better government and a more stable world. But they fail to take into consideration the major unintended consequence of their intentions—the destruction of our democratic framework. Democracy is a very frail plant. It is difficult to establish and very easy to uproot. It has, over the centuries, given this country a social cohesion on which our economic prosperity has been built. However imperfect the present system, people tolerate their Government, even as of today elected on a minority poll, because they know they stand a chance every five years or so of effecting change. They can sack the Administration. The whole relationship between people and the state is changing because consent given to the Government today is based on a residual belief in the democratic process. That democratic process meant that one could vote to change laws and the people who made them lived in the same country. Today it is virtually impossible to rectify European legislation once enacted. Noble Lords will need no reminding that the American War of Independence triggered on the expression, ““No taxation without representation””. Today we have its successor, ““Regulation without rectification””, and the same frustrations are leading to the growing dislike of the EU and all its works and a burning sense of resentment which we in this House should not ignore. When we ran our own affairs, if a citizen had a justifiable complaint, his MP would arrange to see the Minister and talk the problem through. Laws got amended, regulations got adapted and there was a democratic safety valve. That has all gone. Now how easy is it to get, through a maze of EU committees, the unanimous agreement of 13 other members to effect change? It is near impossible. We are assured that the Lisbon treaty will hand more power back to Governments; but if we believe that, we will believe anything. What happened to the promise of subsidiarity last time around? It has been neither seen nor heard. The EU is unreformable. Meanwhile, we are informed that our scrutiny committees in both Houses are where we influence EU legislation before it is enacted. That is where the democratic deficit is meant to be rectified and will be rectified in future. Noble Lords may have seen the Parliamentary Questions that I have asked recently as to how often the European Union has altered legislation as a result of recommendations from Select Committees of either House of Parliament. Each time, the relevant Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Malloch-Brown, who is not in his place, has given the same Written Answer: "““The information requested cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate public cost””." Finally, I asked whether any example could be given of where we had influenced EU legislation. After some weeks, I was told that we had managed to alter the EU audio media directive. The scrutiny committees labour and toil, but they bring forth a mouse. By deeds, not words, should they be judged. The scrutiny committees, like much of the EU, are one big exercise in democratic self-delusion. The democratic safety valve is near non-existent, the process is a sham, and this treaty will not change it. This is what the debate about the European constitution is all about. What control do we have over our destiny and how do we call those who govern us to account? No one denies that membership of the EU has transferred sovereignty from Westminster and Whitehall, but it is easy to lose sight of how substantial that transfer has been and of its effect on our constitutional arrangements. How ironic that the Government want to embark on a programme of radical constitutional reform, as though they and we had any real control over matters here any more. Meanwhile, our membership costs us some £10 billion a year; enough to halve the rate of council tax. We receive back the lowest of any member state and half as much per capita as France. We have lost control of our borders. We have a negative balance of trade with the EU. The strength of the old unwritten British constitution was that, by and large, the governed believed that they had some control over the Government through the ballot box. Now they feel powerless. Why else has election participation fallen so dramatically? It has little to do with the difficulties of voting, but it is to do with the fact that our most fundamental right has been surrendered; the right to hold those who govern us to account. Those who dream the dream of Europe will ultimately pay the consequences of failure to recognise this fact; it is so much easier to be idealistic than realistic. Those who believe that we can reverse the ongoing process of the transfer of power to Brussels should remember how the so-called Social Chapter opt-out was rapidly undermined by the abuse of health and safety powers under the treaty. That point was well made by the noble Lord, Lord Howell. That abuse was, of course, sanctioned by the courts. We should never fail to remember the passerelle clause, which gives overriding legal precedence to the interests of the EU; a clause that the Government have never challenged. The inescapable fact is that we are subject to Community law and to the European Court’s interpretation of treaties. No red line or agreements limiting the powers of Europe can be safely relied on, because they will be reinterpreted by the EU courts over time to expand those powers again. The average man in the street may not know of these legal niceties, but he is in the front line of the endless costly EU regulatory stupidities. He increasingly does not recognise the Britain he knew, and he does not like it. Every survey shows that the British public want a referendum. If they do not get it, far from this constitutional treaty binding Europe in harmony, it will, by weakening the European Union’s democratic legitimacy, accelerate its disintegration. That should not divert us from the need to look beyond the treaty to the more fundamental issues of the right relationship for Britain with the EU in the 21st century. The Government should welcome a referendum, should abide by its results, and should use the outcome to renegotiate a new relationship based on trade and co-operation; a relationship that would be right for this country, popular with the British people and politically feasible. That would be a positive path to the future. The alternative, if this treaty is ratified without a referendum is, I fear, that we will have to learn the oldest and most basic of lessons; that power does not give legitimacy, that might does not confer wisdom and that an organisation based without common consent can never survive. We need a referendum.