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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, when I was on my way to the House this morning, I spotted a Daily Mail headline at a newsstand that said, "Sharks off the English coast". I thought, "Here we go again. Another attack on the European Union". I therefore felt that I had some justification in speaking about the European Union in the House today. A lot has already been said but, as we near the end of the debate, I hope that noble Lords will indulge me if I add a few thoughts about the European Union, and I think that they will probably not be surprised that I do so. I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Howell, is coming to take his place because my first point may be somewhat relevant to what he said earlier. Regardless of his motives, the leader of the Conservative Party did both the European Union and the United Kingdom a considerable favour in deciding not to go ahead with a post-ratification referendum. Whether he has done himself anything more than a rather temporary favour, given the fractious mood of his party and of his rank and file, only time will tell, and only time will tell whether "avoiding a bust up", as he put it, with our European partners will survive the lifetime of a Parliament during which, if he were to become Prime Minister, he would hope to achieve his programme of six reforms to Britain’s relations with the European Union. For a fleeting moment—and it was only a fleeting moment—I was tempted to focus on those reforms, or pledges of reform, in my remarks today, but frankly they are irrelevant to the current debate on Europe. Some of them, like the so-called "referendum lock" and the proposed sovereignty Bill, can be quite easily legislated—that is not the problem—but wherever their provisions imply amendment to the treaties, and most of the six do, not least in the complete and totally unnecessary opt-out from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, then the Government will run into the buffers. The ratification of the Lisbon treaty was the culmination of nine years of hard work, often very bitter wrangling, of unsuccessful negotiations and, ultimately, successful negotiations, leaving everyone physically, mentally and intellectually exhausted. Only someone living in cloud-cuckoo-land could count on the other 26 member states agreeing for at least a decade to reopen the treaties amended by Lisbon and embark on another round of wrangling over Britain’s special pleading. However, because we are a highly respected nation, it may be that at the margins a few concessions can be wrung from our partners by a Conservative Government, possibly in the form of political declarations which sound reassuring but carry no legal value and which would be scorned anyway by the more militant Eurosceptics. So why irritate our European partners when there is so much that a British Government of whatever political colour can and should do to help to design and take forward an agenda for Europe that meets today’s challenges? Let us look at what those challenges are: global security, climate change, nuclear proliferation, energy security, economic co-operation, financial regulation, tackling cross-border crime and enlarging the European Union to the east. I could go on. Our European partners know that we have much to contribute to the meeting of these challenges, so let us not undermine their confidence in us by testing their patience with backward-looking demands and pointless provocations. As David Miliband has said, what Europe needs from us is our hard-headed pragmatism and global mindset. We can and should provide that. I want to say a word about the presidency of the European Council, or chairman as I prefer to call it, and the post of the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, both of which posts may be decided tonight at a heads of state and government dinner in Brussels. What a bizarre procedure for deciding who will be the candidates for the two very important posts on which the Council will have to vote. One would not select a village cricket team with as much awkwardness and opacity. It is also ridiculous that the search for the right man or woman for either job should be constrained by the need to balance the centre-right for the chairman's post with someone from the centre-left for that of high representative. Why can we not look for the best persons available for the jobs regardless of their political positioning? Why should people of the calibre of the noble Lord, Lord Patten of Barnes, a former EU Commissioner for external affairs, or Carl Bildt, Sweden's immensely experienced Foreign Minister, be excluded from consideration for the post of high representative simply because they are not from the centre-left? Meanwhile I greatly regret that our very able Foreign Secretary has declared himself not available. This is the really hard post to fill as long as the choice is confined to someone from the centre-left. I read with great approval, in this morning's Financial Times, Jacques Delors' appeal for less bargaining and a little more sobriety in the process. I do not think that is in particular reference to the working dinner that is about to be served, but you never know. The Conservative Opposition, of course, do not want a chairman or president of the European Council anyway but they are wrong. The present system of a six-monthly presidency rotating among heads of government has not worked as well as it should have done. The Lisbon treaty's creation of a two-and-a-half-year once renewable full-time chairmanship will make the Council more effective at creating direction and action. My reading of the treaty—I have read it an awful lot as it has been bedside reading for the past year—convinces me that the intended role for the chair of the Council is, first, to prepare the Council meetings, set the agenda, chair the meetings, report to the European Parliament on the outcomes and monitor the follow-up on the actions decreed by the governments in Council. He or she will also ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning the common foreign and security policy but—this is crucial—without prejudice to the powers of the high representative. In other words, the chairman's role is to supplement the role of the high representative in external affairs, not substitute for it or compete with it. Would one really need a traffic stopper to fulfil those functions? We have been witnessing misguided efforts in some quarters to create an upgraded perception of the job to suit a particular personality rather than looking for a person to suit the job as envisaged in the treaty. I find that unacceptable and I have hidden my feelings from neither my own party nor the House at large. There are occasions when tribal loyalty just has to give way to principle. I also feel strongly that the first chair should come from one of the smaller member countries where there are a number of qualified candidates. This is not just of symbolic significance. The larger member states downplay the importance of the smaller states at their peril. The Union is not the plaything of the big European powers and must never be if the peoples of Europe are to be brought closer to the Union and the Union closer to the people. I have one more point to make on the filling of posts. I share wholeheartedly the concerns expressed in the letter published in Monday's Financial Times written by European Commissioners Margot Wallstrom and Neelie Kroes and European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis. Why are only men likely to be nominated for the top two posts when there are excellent women candidates available? And why is it that the new Commission is likely to have fewer women than the outgoing one? I am delighted that they mention my noble friend Lady Ashton in their letter as someone spoken of as a good candidate for the post of high representative. The Council should heed the words of the Commission’s President Barroso when he calls for a better gender balance in appointing commissioners. Do not forget that women make up more than half the population of Europe; so why on earth are they so inadequately represented? That is enough of posts and candidates. Those of us who believe passionately in the European project must admit that not all is well at the moment. Armand Clesse, the director of the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies, recently put it this way: ""The European project is now typified by uneasy bargaining, unstable arrangements and a constant search for some provisional fix. It is a triumph of ‘sacro egoismo’—sanctified self-interest"." Recent indications of rising economic nationalism and a decline in the popular legitimacy of the EU and its institutions risk reinforcing each other. The citizens of Europe are asking whether the EU has the will and the means to deliver on its earlier promises. Popular consent for liberalisation was purchased with promises of solidarity. Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the Union, said nearly 60 years ago that Europe would not happen in one go, nor as a whole construct; it would happen through concrete achievements and, first, by creating a de facto solidarity. However, there is too little evidence of that solidarity today. If we want an effective European Union, it must have the full support of Europe's citizens, and it will not have that unless they are convinced that the grand bargain of liberalisation in return for solidarity has not been abandoned. The implementation of the Lisbon treaty will do much to enhance the Union’s efficiency and democratise its procedures. God knows that we need an effective European Union if we are not to wake up one day to find ourselves in a G2 world in which the United States and China shape the major decisions that affect us all and the European Union stands by begging for an audience. What no treaty can ensure is the political will to put solidarity among and within the member states at the heart of its raison d’être. A thoughtful French politician recently wrote that Lisbon was a treaty content with clearing pathways rather than creating new visions and new horizons. He was right. Those pathways lead away from the idea of a federal superstate and towards the clear recognition that the political authority of the member states remains the motor for European policy-making. Although the Tory Opposition hate to admit it, the federalist tendency has lost the battle of ideas and has faded from the European scene. It is therefore the political authority of the member states—the motor for European policy-making—that must be collectively mobilised to respond to the needs of Europe's citizens and the demands placed on the Union as a crucial player in a globalised and multipolar world. A Tory Government will bear a heavy responsibility in that. At present, the Tories’ leaders seem not to understand the principle of proportionality. Their planned assault on the treaties is out of all proportion to the gains that they can hope to make for themselves, the country or the British people. Perhaps, in a rather more light-hearted manner, I can explain to them what proportionality is. During the Belle Epoque in France, there was a famous writer of theatrical comedy called Tristran Bernard. One day, walking down a Paris street, a removals man came out of a house carrying a grandfather clock on his shoulder. Turning as he came out, he knocked the playwright into the gutter. Bernard got up, dusted himself off and said: "Why can’t you wear a watch like everybody else?". I hope that the Conservatives will get themselves a watch and stop blundering about on the fringes of Europe like a man with a grandfather clock on his shoulder. Will they? I have my doubts, but one can live in hope for another Labour Government.