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EU Legislation (EUC Report)

My Lords, of course the Commission proposes, but the Council of Ministers has very little control over what the Commission then does. The Council of Ministers is simply a channel for taking the proposals of the Commission and passing them through to national Parliaments. It has very little control over what the Commission does. I hope that the noble Lord will accept that the Commission is the sole proposer of legislation. The report says that. Paragraph 166 of the report states: "““The Commission is a political body, not just an administrative one””." The problem is that this political body has zero political legitimacy, which goes to the heart of the matter. That is why the French and the Dutch electorates failed to ratify the constitution. They voted it down when it came before them. It is why the Irish people voted down the Lisbon treaty, which, as we know, is, in essence, the constitution as well, although it is trading as the Lisbon treaty. It is also why the—