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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I will intervene briefly to comment on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, about whether the provisions of the Lisbon treaty make a difference. I believe that the provisions of the Lisbon treaty on the common foreign and security policy stand a good chance of making a difference; they could make the European Union’s common foreign and security policy more coherent and effective by bringing together the policies and the levers to execute those policies through, for example, bringing together development policy and foreign policy. I shall comment on a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Howell. The proposed European External Action Service is an important component of ensuring a more coherent common foreign and security policy, not in any way as a substitute for but as a complement to our own missions and Diplomatic Service. I do not know whether discussions have been taking place, in COREPER or elsewhere, on the European External Action Service. If they have been, I hope very much that the British Government and our representatives have been closely involved in them, to ensure that the European External Action Service is shaped in such a way as to complement and not to substitute for our own Diplomatic Service and that the expertise that we have is being brought fully to bear on the formation of the External Action Service at the earliest possible stage. For those reasons, I do not support the amendment.