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EU Legislation (EUC Report)

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, on his maiden speech. It was of the excellence that all members of Sub-Committee E have come to expect of him, and it has made a singular contribution to the work of the European Union Select Committee. I shall deal with one or two aspects of this excellent report, particularly those that relate to the Commission’s sole right of initiative. This so-called sole right of initiative is so frequently misdescribed, not least by UKIP members in your Lordships’ House, as the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels who are wagging the dog by the tail. Yet, in practice, we do not see the mythological creation in the minds of UKIP members—the idea that somehow legislative initiative is the Commission’s ball and that it will determine the rules by which all the games will be played. That is described quite clearly in the report as being far from the truth. It is arrant nonsense, and it is well debunked by the evidence that we had in formulating the report, especially the very detailed evidence that came from two former European Commissioners who are Members of your Lordships’ House—the noble Lords, Lord Brittan and Lord Kinnock. Arising from the evidence of the noble Lord, Lord Kinnock is the report’s very interesting Table 1, on the exercise of the Commission’s right of initiative and where the focus of the demand for legislation came from. The total proportion of EU legislative proposals that come under the category, ““Adaptation of Community law to the development of scientific, economic or social data (of which 15 per cent are also responses to requests from other EU bodies)””, is 35 per cent. Under the category, ““International obligations entered into by the Community””—the sort of things that Members of your Lordships’ House are always demanding of the Commission—we await a conclusion to a Doha round, which is the responsibility of the Commission to conclude on our behalf, and when we get it we want to see the legislation—the total is 31 per cent. Under the category, ““Response to an express request from other EU bodies, Member States or economic operators””, it is 17 per cent. Under the category, ““Mandatory instruments under the Treaty or secondary law””, it is 12 per cent. Then we come to the smallest group, ““New initiatives from the Commission””, which is 5 per cent of the total. The idea of this bureaucracy being housed in the Berlaymont, dreaming up every crackpot idea that it can think of and then inflicting it on unwilling institutions and unwilling member states is a fantasy of imaginations that are really not fertile enough. It is so far from reality that they should by now have learnt some of the realities. The sole right of initiative is described very clearly in the report. It is, as the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, said, and as the report says, "““a power to propose, not to dispose””." When it comes to legislation in the European Union, the Commission has no role in the legislative process once the proposal has been made. Usually it is not the sole originator of the legislation. In the report, we see that the European legislature—the Council, or more usually the Council and the European Parliament—determines which proposals become law and which parts of which proposals remain in the legislation when the legislative Act is passed. Paragraphs 149 and 150 describe that in great detail. One of the most complex things in the legislative process, which is described very well in this excellent report, is the interrelationship between European institutions. The idea that the Commission has a power that it can exercise, almost in a vacuum, ignores the fact that its members are all subject to appointment hearings by the European Parliament. Indeed, adverse comments expressed about a would-be Commissioner led in one case to the then Italian Government replacing their nominee. The institutions have the power to dismiss the Commission as a whole. Members in your Lordships’ House will remember when Jacques Santer and his Commission jumped ship before it happened. The Commission’s annual work programme is subject to parliamentary scrutiny and examination in the Council of Ministers. Its annual legislative programme is equally subject to a vote in the European Parliament and, because of the need for consent, in the Council of Ministers. On top of all this, the most significant factor in the inter-institutional complexities, which mean that the Commission has to take into account the views of others, is the budgetary powers of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. A Commission that sought to enact legislation would not get it through. Even if it devised some mechanism that could get the legislation through in the face of opposition from the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, it would not have the budgetary resources to give effect to its views. We have debunked a lot of the mythology that people have tried to weave into the European discussion over the years. The report gives a very clear description of the reality. As paragraph 154 says with great clarity: "““The Commission operates in a very open way””." The reality is a far cry from the abusive description of the Commission as a secretive and self-serving bureaucracy—the description that we get from so many Eurosceptics and which I will not be too surprised to hear later on in the debate today. Finally, there are two things in the Government’s reply to which I particularly wish to refer. One is the suggestion from Jim Murphy, the former Minister for Europe, at paragraph 2, that the, "““minimum consultation period of 8 weeks makes it difficult for national stakeholders to respond. We would therefore like to see the Commission increasing this period to 16 weeks and we will continue to press for this””." The other thing relates to the idea that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, described as interesting and the fact that the Government have referred that interesting idea to BERR, the department responsible. I am sure that the noble and learned Lord and his Committee will continue with their usual courtesy to seek a progress report on what that government department is doing. I welcome this report, which debunks a lot of the mystique of Europe. In doing so, it serves a useful purpose for which the noble and learned Lord deserves our congratulations.