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European Union (Amendment) Bill

Lawyers have given their views about this matter, but what has not been made clear by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, is the unanimity expressed in those views. Indeed, those views have been supported by the Select Committee of this House, which set out very clearly in its report on the impact of the treaty that the provisions on legal personality were not innovatory and simply reflected what was de facto the position under the treaty of the European Union, although it had been explicitly provided for in the European Community. The most compelling individual evidence given to this House was in the hearings of Sub-Committee C, chaired by my noble friend Lord Roper, by Professor Alan Dashwood. He is a lawyer well known to members of Her Majesty’s Opposition, as I believe he advised them during the treaty of Maastricht on this very point. The noble Lord will no doubt have read his evidence, which indicated bluntly: "““It is my view that the recognition of the legal personality of the European Union is a purely technical change””." He went on to say: "““The present situation, which is quite amusing for lawyers but absurdly complex, is that the European Union considered as a whole has a separate legal personality for the European Community but its own de facto legal personality for the purposes of the second and third pillar””."