---

European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I shall be brief because we have had an interesting debate around issues that are quite broad and I would like to make progress this evening. The amendment is specific and I pray in aid the Constitution Committee. The committee published an extremely good report, to which noble Lords have referred many times in our deliberations, on the implications of the treaty for the UK constitution. The report makes no mention of the role of Her Majesty the Queen for the simple reason that the treaty will have no effect whatsoever on the constitutional position of the monarch. I said this in the closing part of my speech at Second Reading and I repeat now that the position of Her Majesty the Queen is completely unchanged by the treaty. This also means that the status of the Queen as the head of the Commonwealth is in no way changed by the Lisbon treaty. The creation of a permanent President of the European Council also does not affect the status of the monarch in any way. I hope that that gives absolute clarity on why this amendment is unnecessary and can be withdrawn.