---

European Union (Amendment) Bill

I support this amendment by underlining some of the questions put by my noble friends Lord Stoddart and Lord Willoughby de Broke. We are once again dealing with a well-worn area of Europhile propaganda, which runs that the European Union would grind to a halt if it does not have the constitution. The French and the Dutch knocked that one on the head and we had a one year and then a two year period of reflection. We are now told that the European Union will grind to a halt—some of us wish that it would—if it does not get this new treaty with a permanent president strutting the world stage for two and a half plus two and a half years in the interests of the bureaucrats and Europhiles who support him. I have one question for the Minister, which I think undermines the position taken by the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, and others. Since the rejection of the constitution by the French and Dutch people, does she accept that the pace and speed of European law-making has gone up by 25 per cent? The requirement for unanimity was no barrier to this increased speed of law-making, which occurred because laws were easily validated, as is generally accepted. So why do we need this new treaty? We did not need the constitution and we certainly do not need this new president. That is the question and I would be very happy to receive an answer.