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House Committee: Parliamentary Passes

My Lords, this is extremely discourteous. I spent some time yesterday with Malcolm Harbour MEP who had to hurry to a meeting here afterwards. He now has to clear security properly. He probably has to do that regularly when he is in this country because he appears at European committees and is very involved in legislation. This is sending out completely the wrong message because as the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, said, under the Lisbon treaty, we are now much closer. The EU publication, Your Guide to the Lisbon Treaty, states: ""Co-decision will become the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’. It will extend to new policy areas such as freedom, security and justice"." That means there will be a closer relationship. If we want to influence some of the laws that come out of Europe that we have to implement in our local legislation, I suggest we cosy up a little bit to the MEPs, not alienate them. The German Parliament has a room that MEPs can rest in, and they are made very welcome. On a practical basis, we have to do something about this. I sometimes wonder whether the other place has removed itself to another planet.