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European Union (Amendment) Bill

If the noble Lord will be patient, I assure him that I shall come to that. I remind the Committee that the Lords EU Committee unanimously concluded: "““Much depends on the European Parliament itself, but the weight of the evidence suggests””—" those are important words— "““that the agriculture and fisheries committees of the European Parliament will in future represent, and be closely overseen by, a wider range of interests than the narrow … interests that have historically dominated those committees. For these reasons, we expect that the change is likely to assist rather than impede further reform of both the common agricultural and fisheries policies””." That is why we argue that there should be support from all round the Committee for this extension of co-decision.