---

European Union (Amendment) Bill

I should like to thank my noble friend Lord Blackwell, the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, and, of course, the noble Baroness, for their substantial contributions to this important debate. I am not convinced—even after listening to the noble Baroness—that the changes in this treaty are necessary. The objects that the noble Baroness has said that those changes are intended to achieve can be equally well achieved by a combination of the arrest warrant and intergovernmental co-operation. I have heard nothing from the government Bench this evening to change my mind. Indeed, in many respects, informal co-operation between member states in tackling so many of the problems mentioned tonight is probably just as effective as any formal agreement between member states. One should recognise that, just as constitutional conventions in this country play such a crucial part in the successful way we operate governmental affairs, so, equally, conventions between member states can have the same effect internationally. The noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, admitted that these changes were important but, rightly, went on to say that the United Kingdom need not be affected by them because it has the opt-out provision. There are, as I tried to indicate in my opening remarks, frailties in the opt-out provisions. However, generally speaking, I accept what he said; but that is not the point of our amendments. They were about what those measures are doing to the European Union itself. In our submission, these measures are changing the character of the European Union in a way that will prove extremely undesirable. It is often said that the threat we are faced with is that the European Union will become some form of executive Government. Some describe it as a state. Originally, under the treaty of Rome, that conclusion would have been difficult to draw from the initial measures. One could say, perhaps, that the Community was federal in that it had a court that could override the decisions of national courts; but one could not say that it had a Government in the sense that national states have. However, these measures are an undesirable step towards executive centralisation that will prove extremely damaging to the European Union. They will not only affect, adversely, the attitude of citizens to it, but will also undermine all those good things that it has done. I will give you an example. One of the most ingenuous instruments the Community has developed over the years is the directive. It has been fundamental to the success of establishing a single market—its ingenuity lying in the fact that all the implementation is within the power and the legal systems of the member states. For example, as I indicated in my opening remarks, under Article 83.2 the Union will take on the power with respect to any harmonisation measures to introduce its own criminal law system and to implement it from the centre. This is the destruction of the concept of the directive. It will make member states, in future, extremely reluctant to enter into fresh areas of harmonisation knowing that the directive will be undermined by the Union’s ability to impose rules from the centre. These measures will have a damaging effect on the European Union that goes far wider than what they say in themselves.