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EU Legislation (EUC Report)

My Lords, I can at least agree with the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, on one thing in congratulating the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, on his report and on the work that the committee has done to produce it. I was taken with the preamble, which said that the committee was dedicated to ““lift the veil””, as it was elegantly put, in the call for evidence on the process of the creation of EU legislation. I enjoy the expression ““lift the veil””, which conjures up the image of a mysterious lady. We do not know what lies behind that veil. When we lift it, what will we see? Will we see a sloe-eyed young beauty or a poxed and wizened hag? Sadly, the committee’s report reveals the latter. The fact that such a report is necessary, surely underlines the point that the system of European governance is opaque and poorly understood by anyone who is not a paid-up Euroanorak. I suppose that any one of us here today will qualify as that. In its conclusion, the report states: "““Unless the Commission proposes legislation, none can be adopted””," which does not quite chime with the idea that this is a collegiate system. But nowhere in the report could I find any searching questions asking whether this was a good idea or whether it is healthy for democratic governments or, perhaps more importantly, whether it is good for the people who elect those governments to see so many laws put into statute by a foreign body which they did not elect and which they cannot sack. Paragraph 166 of the report states—