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European Union (Amendment) Bill

The noble Lord has an amendment much later on in our deliberations and I do not want to pre-empt what will no doubt be an interesting discussion in which other noble Lords may wish to participate. I have had enough problems with collapsed groups of amendments for one night and would like to try to get through this. I am not worried about the noble Lord being arrested. He is quite safe. He might be worried but he worries needlessly, not least because he is sitting in your Lordships’ House. He is perfectly entitled to make his views known and he does so with great gusto, even if he did refer to himself earlier as the fluffy end of the lollipop. Amendment No. 58 is about the role of Eurojust and its ability to initiate criminal investigations. As noble Lords said—and I think the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, referred to this—the Lisbon treaty creates a new legal base for Eurojust, building on that which is already in Article 31. It provides an extension of the mandate by envisaging that it could be provided with the power to initiate criminal investigations where at the moment it can only request such action from a member state. Paragraph 2 is clear—and this is important for our discussions—that such formal acts of judicial procedure shall none the less be carried out only by competent national officials. Although the legal base for Eurojust provides for the possibility for extending the remit, it is clear that the UK could not be bound by such a proposal unless we specifically opted in. It would require a new legislative proposal and our extended opt-in would apply to this provision as to the rest of the chapter. So we would have the right to choose whether we participated in any measures to amend or replace the Eurojust council decision and would do so only if it was in our national interests. I should make it clear, in the spirit of being extremely positive about what works well in Europe, that working with Eurojust has been beneficial to the UK. Since 2002, it has given considerable assistance to the UK and has been central to combating drug and human trafficking, serious fraud, money-laundering and child pornography in Europe. I hope that the noble Lord will feel that I have answered his question well. Amendment No. 59 is the next amendment in this sequence of amendments and concerns the provisions on the creation of a European Public Prosecutor. Article 86 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union includes provisions for the creation of a public prosecutor who would investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment the perpetrators of and accomplices in offences against the financial interests of the Union. We have a double lock on any move to create a public prosecutor. In lock 1, the opt-in applies and we choose whether to participate. As the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, said, it is very unlikely that we would wish to opt into a proposal to create a public prosecutor. In lock 2, unanimity is retained for any decision to establish such a prosecutor and for any decision to extend the prosecutor’s powers. In the unlikely event that we opted into a proposal to establish one, we would have a veto over any decision to extend those powers. In no circumstances can we be obliged to participate in the creation of such a public prosecutor but, as noble Lords have said, if nine of the member states wish to proceed under enhanced co-operation, they are free to do so. That does not affect the UK unless we decide to participate. Amendment No. 59A relates to the provisions on the collection, storage, processing, analysis and exchange of relevant information in relation to the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal offences. The new article sets out the legal base for police co-operation measures. Such measures, as the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, said, are subject to QMV and codecision. This includes the provision for the collection, storage, analysis and exchange of relevant information. We believe that the exchange of information throughout the European Union is vital; it enables us to work together to tackle common threats such as terrorism and organised crime so that we can pursue and prosecute criminals more effectively. This co-operation has given us access to crucial data-sharing arrangements, such as introducing a mechanism that allows the police to access fingerprints, DNA and vehicle registration information held by other member states. Noble Lords will probably be aware that there was a pilot project with the German police, who accessed data from Austrian police and are now investigating new leads on more than 1,500 unsolved crimes, including serious offences such as rape, murder and sexual offences. We hope to see the benefit to UK investigations and we want to pursue this. The amendment—I am not suggesting that this is its purpose—would deny us the benefit of this valuable co-operation. Amendment No. 60 concerns the provisions relating to Europol and Amendment No. 61 relates to the provisions on Europol’s operational functions. Under the new article, Europol’s mission is, "““to support and strengthen action by the Member States’ police authorities and other law enforcement authorities in preventing and combating serious crime affecting two or more Member States, terrorism and other forms of crime””." Again, these are very important issues. Europol was created under the Maastricht treaty and formally set up by an EU convention in 1998. That convention is due to be replaced this year with a Council decision. It is in our interests to co-operate with Europol. Noble Lords will know only too well of the potential, and indeed the reality, of the work that Europol has done to break up violent and armed gangs of eastern European robbers who had already committed more than 20 attacks in the UK, to break up child pornography networks and to support the Midlands police force in breaking up a people-trafficking ring that involved Chinese and Iraqi people. Europol is very important. Perhaps its most important investigation involved the Cambridgeshire letter bomber. It gave direct support to the Cambridgeshire police, which led to the apprehension of an individual who was convicted of sending explosive devices through the post. When he was arrested, he was found to be in possession of a number of explosive devices that were ready to be posted. There are direct benefits to the UK in collaborating with Europol. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said a little about Amendment No. 94. We will come to this amendment much later on, so I do not want to go into too much detail, although I will say that it is about ““financial penalty””. The UK cannot be fined for deciding that it does not wish to opt in or opt out of something. We will discuss that in greater detail. When we come to look at the provision, it will be important to see that this is not about a financial penalty, but about a recognition that, if as a consequence of the UK’s action it becomes inoperable, then it is only reasonable that it may be required to contribute financially to make sure that the consequences of that inoperability are dealt with. I have dealt with that as much as I can. I shall write to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, on xenophobia, rather than go back into that right now. I hope the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, will feel able to withdraw his amendment.