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European Union (Amendment) Bill

It does not have a legal status. That’s it—it does not have a legal status, full stop. The noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, asked me a question. I was waiting for someone to ask me about the private jet, lots of staff and so on. When I was in Brussels this was running as a news story, that there had been a discussion on a Tuesday evening, I think, where a jet and lots of other wonderful things had theoretically been discussed. Our permanent representative there—our ambassador, if I may call him that—was at the dinner and there was no discussion of that kind. There has been no suggestion of a private jet, no proposals or discussions about the residence and the salary and no formal discussions about the precision of that job, though obviously there have been informal discussions on the respective responsibilities of the different people defined within the treaty—for example, the President of the Commission, the high representative, the rotating presidency and the President of the European Council, which are exactly the issues raised by Members of the Committee here. As I indicated, the briefing about the 10,000 troops is not true. As we go through the line-by-line scrutiny, issues such as defence and other matters will be raised, and I have no doubt that the noble Lord will have an opportunity to have any myths exploded or, who knows, any clarification or confirmation that may be appropriate. There has also been confusion about whether the president of the Council and the high representative could be a merged job. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, is reassured about that—that that is not allowed under the treaty. A specific reference says that if you hold office for the Commission you cannot hold any other office. I think the problem goes back to the glorious blue book. I must again thank the noble Lords, Lord Pearson, Lord Willoughby de Broke and Lord Stoddart, for presenting me with a copy of the book. On page 36 of the opening section, under ““President of the European Council””, it states: "““A clause in the earlier drafts of the Treaty specifically excluded the President of the Commission from becoming the ""President of the European Council. However, this clause has been removed … and there is nothing in the text of the Treaty””," of Lisbon, "““to prevent the President of the Commission also becoming the President to the European Council””." That is not true; they have it wrong in the book. I hope that the person who wrote it, whom I have met, will get in touch and have it corrected. It is absolutely clear in the treaty—with luck I shall find the right bit—that if you hold a Commission role you cannot hold another role. So the vice-president of the Commission, who is also the high representative, cannot become president of the Council; the president of the Commission cannot become president of the Council; and the president of the Commission cannot become the vice-president of the Commission, because you cannot hold two roles.