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Access to EU Documents (EU Committee Report)

It is a great pleasure to follow the previous speakers in wholeheartedly supporting the commendations and thanks to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, for all the work that he has done. Although I have had less acquaintance with, and less direct knowledge of, that work compared with colleagues who have had more years of experience in that regard, I can testify to the huge contribution that he made, particularly in the latter stages of the European Union Select Committee. That was referred to by the noble Lords, Lord Roper and Lord Grenfell. Without his contribution, we could not have made the progress that we did on what was, thanks to the chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, and other members of the committee, a very remarkable report. It is lengthy and profound, and it had a considerable impact on the progress of the Lisbon treaty Bill in the Commons. It was in the background; none the less, it played an important role. I very much agree with most of what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, has said today, and so there is no need for me to be lengthy in my comments other than to commend the report from these Benches and to hope that the noble and learned Lord’s Motion to consider will eventually be approved after further discussion. We are now at an important stage with the start of the new European Parliament and the question of what will happen to the further ratification steps. We think mainly of the Irish referendum but other countries are still to put the final seal of approval on the ratification process. That usually happens with presidential signatures, but there is also the necessary and important—presumably primary—legislation to come in the Bundestag before the general election in September. It will be interesting to see the terms of the Bill when it is eventually published. I am not sure of the date because there is the summer holiday to contend with as well. Subject to that and to, I hope, the ratification process eventually being completed, with the Lisbon treaty starting to function in the European Union there will be the very important transparency priority for the future of the Union. There will be a new European Parliament with in many ways a different kind of membership and, we hope, more openness on the part of the other institutions. The Commission has tried to lead the way in these matters and it needs support and thanks for that. Perhaps logically, the Council of Ministers remains slightly in the background in progress on these matters because of the early pre-legislative stages, which always make Governments very nervous. The then Minister for Europe, Caroline Flint, who left the Government for totally different reasons from those enunciated recently by the noble Lord, Lord Malloch-Brown—I do not make any comparison at all—revealed in the Minutes of Evidence all the nervousness of government about the revelation of documents at the negotiation stage. I quote what she said from page 2 of the Minutes of Evidence: ""I think in this debate that we need to be mindful about the difference in terms of the role and responsibilities of the Council and the ministers who are represented in those forums and the difference between the accountability of those individuals to their Member States in these negotiations and those of MEPs, who I think have an important role but a slightly different role"." The noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, then put the question—I hope he will forgive me for quoting it: ""Is the broad answer to the question I put that the Government does think it would seriously undermine the decision making process to make any sort of public disclosure of negotiating documents?"." The Europe Minister’s answer was: ""I think it could contribute to that, yes. Inadvertently, it would lead to something that would not be very satisfactory and people would possibly find other ways to have these conversations and talks. It would not allow the candour that is necessary in these discussions and negotiations. I do not think that in itself would be helpful in terms of policy making"." That is undoubtedly the position not only of the UK Government—this matter is still under scrutiny and has not been decided yet—but of a number of other Governments. If we accept the logic that this is really only a legislative stage, and an early legislative stage under the co-decision procedure which the European Union Select Committee is now felicitously examining closely, that is much more acceptable to member Governments. Governments then have the ability to reveal, if they so wish, other pre-legislative negotiating positions that are developing. They often brief the press in that way, and there is no reason why that should not be a happy outcome. However, I am not totally optimistic that this will work well. It remains to be seen what will happen during this different process. There is an obvious need to modernise this regulation, as the report implies. It is not enough for us to rely on the terms of Article 255, although that article is adamant about the need for modernising the regulation and is encouraging as a background. The sub-committee’s Recommendation 17 on page 8 says about the courts: ""We consider it appropriate, in principle, for the question of disclosure of documents submitted to courts to be regulated by the courts themselves, where such courts have, or are likely to have, and operate appropriate mechanisms enabling third parties to apply for and obtain access where necessary"." That is a much easier matter for this Committee and other organs of examination to determine and, as far as I among many observers of these complicated matters can see, it is not producing much trial and tribulation at the moment. I refer briefly to the exchanges on the relationship to the co-decision inquiry and the other matters that are dealt with in this report. Again, paragraph 61 on page 16 endorses Article 255, which I think is generally accepted; and summing it all up with great force in paragraph 77 on page 18, the committee says: ""We support a firmer obligation on institutions to establish direct access to the public of their documents and believe that there is scope for more proactive dissemination of information"." One technical and technological suggestion is a subscription e-mail service. I imagine that other things could be tackled as well. Eventually, it may not be necessary for anyone to subscribe to it. I hope so, and the sooner the better. Although the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, referred delicately and engagingly to a swan-song, I thought that I would go straight to Hollywood in total contrast and refer Members to the famous Cecil B DeMille definition of the ideal film: you start with an earthquake and build up to a real climax. No one would suggest that that would be appropriate for this committee report because it is—I am sure the noble and learned Lord would not mind us laymen who are not legal experts using the term—dry-as-dust stuff. None the less, it is very important for the background, and even if we get nowhere near to an earthquake in this matter, which would be totally inappropriate, we need Governments’ attitudes to change substantially and all the various institutions working together for the greater good to take a more adventurous approach. So much European legislation will depend on sensible consensus in the future rather than on perhaps some of the more classic manifestations of party political behaviour in the national Parliaments, although that can also play a role in the European Parliament between the different political groups. I say that with some pleasure, reflecting as I do on the early 1970s when I was a Member, under the dual mandate system, of what was then a very weak European Parliament—the European Assembly to most people—with 184 Members and where sometimes the Commission did not even bother to attend, particularly towards the end of the week to what is now, having been created in Brussels mainly but also in Strasbourg, an increasingly powerful and important institution that I hope meets with the pleasure and approval of colleagues on this Committee. We see the genuine building-in of democracy at the European level and more effective liaison, we hope, with national Parliaments as their increased powers are built-in from the Lisbon treaty process. On that note, I hope very much that this Committee will support the suggestion of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, that we approve this report.