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European Union (Amendment) Bill

The Minister gave the noble Lord and other members of the committee a counter-assertion, which was that, ““It is all okay now because we think JHA and CFSP are protected””. That is not a grown-up or fully mature argument to present to the Houses of Parliament. There are deeper and more important reasons, which I would like to hear. We are not going to hear about them now, I realise. All I ask of the Government at the end of this short debate, and I shall probably ask it at the end of others, is please do not tell us that nothing has changed when it clearly has. In the excellent EU report, the last, quite long, sentence of paragraph 2.58 begins: "““Conferring legal personality expressly on the Union””." I will not read it all out, but it points out that it will apply to the EU and the areas currently covered by the Second and Third Pillars. That may have nothing to do with competence. It may not change even the underlying pattern of behaviour—although who is to know, when the whole process is step by step, over the years, and one thing grows from another—but it is a change. So please do not tell us that nothing has changed when it has. In the same way, over the whole constitution and the word-for-word translation of it, please do not tell us that something has changed when it has not. If we follow those two precepts, we will get on a lot quicker with processing this Bill. I have finished, but I think the noble Lord wants to speak.