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Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con): The Foreign Secretary mentioned the charter of fundamental rights. Will that be legally binding?

Mr. Straw: The legal position of the charter of fundamental rights is set out very clearly in articles 52 and 53 and in the explanations. In certain circumstances it will be legally binding, but in most circumstances it is simply a restatement of what is in existing EU law. As a result of our negotiations, the extent to which it can be legally binding in practice is very limited indeed.

The change that I have outlined in respect of the presidency illustrates a third point: this is a treaty for an effective European Union of freely co-operating nations, with national Governments firmly in control. We have heard all sorts of rants from Conservative Members, including those who have been accepted again on to the Front Bench, not only about the consequences of the treaty that we are considering but about those of previous treaties.

The right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), for whom I have great personal affection, but who is slightly off the wall even by Conservative party standards on EU matters, has been taken back into the shadow Cabinet. I therefore presume that the leader of the Conservative party and the deputy leader, who speaks on foreign policy, find the right hon. Gentleman's views on all subjects comfortable. Seven years ago, in May 1997, he said in The Times:

"If we sign the Amsterdam treaty, we will abolish our country."

We signed the Amsterdam treaty, which has been implemented, yet there has been no sign of the nation of the United Kingdom being abolished. The right hon. Gentleman said in April 2000:
 
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"The proposed Nice treaty would do what Guy Fawkes failed to do—blow up parliamentary government in Britain."

We signed the Nice treaty, which was ratified, and it has done nothing of the kind.

The new constitution clarifies the nature of the EU and states explicitly that it is an organisation that exercises only those powers that its member states have chosen to confer on it. It is an end to the nonsense about drifting towards a federal superstate. For the first time, it states in terms that the basis of the EU's powers is conferral by member states on the EU. The EU can act only on those matters for which powers are conferred. In addition, there are arrangements for shared powers to be transferred back.

Mr. Michael Ancram (Devizes) (Con): The Foreign Secretary spoke about our views on the presidency. He knows that we were against having a president for five years because we believed that that was a centralising feature of the constitution at a time when we should be trying to restore confidence to the citizens of Europe in their institutions by moving power in the other direction. We proposed team presidencies, which the Foreign Secretary mocked and described as unworkable. He said that they could not answer the needs of Europe. Why, then, does the White Paper highlight with great praise, and the constitution provide for, team presidencies of three nations, just as we suggested, in all the Councils other than the Foreign Council? We are grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for taking up at least that suggestion.

Mr. Straw: Although it would be wholly inaccurate to do so, the right hon. and learned Gentleman is welcome, if he wishes, to claim authorship of the idea of team presidencies. We have proposed it on many occasions. However, he fails to grasp that, although there is a need for team presidencies because of the difficulty of running the existing sixth-monthly presidencies—in a sense, he accepts our point on that—in addition, there is a profound need for the appointment by the European Council of a single individual to represent nation states in Europe for five years, to ensure that they, rather than the permanent Administration in Brussels or the Commission, direct the EU's agenda. I remain astonished that Conservative Members resist that idea, because it ensures not centralisation, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman suggests, but that the 25 nation states exercise power, as is proper.

Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow) (Lab): Years ago, when I was a member of the indirectly elected European Parliament, a talented Frenchman called Emile Noel was its secretary. He said that it was crucial to overcome the problem of having to balance out nationalities rather than select talent. If the President's office is set up, will he be able to choose on the basis of talent rather than nationality the key people serving the presidency?

Mr. Straw: Yes, I believe so. I am pleased to report to my hon. Friend that one of the other changes that the constitution, once approved, would effect is that each individual state will no longer have its national representative in the Commission. The Commission will
 
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be two thirds the size of the total number of states. That means that any member state will have two out of three college periods of five years with a Commissioner. As my hon. Friend says, it is important to get away from having people there simply because they represent some sort of national quota.

Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab): Will the Home Secretary—sorry, Foreign Secretary—give way?

Mr. Straw: I have changed jobs but I shall give way.

Mrs. Dunwoody: I beg his pardon. Are we to assume that the rule will apply throughout the Commission and that the existing practice of not only appointing people on a national basis but parcelling out the jobs in suitable levels of seniority will not continue?

Mr. Straw: It will take time before such reforms to existing arrangements are effected. If my hon. Friend wants the winds of reform to blow through Brussels, we are more likely to achieve that through the constitution than the alternative. If we do not get the constitution through, the only alternative for this country is the existing ramshackle arrangement under the current treaties, which overlay treaties of the EU and those of the European Community in a less than satisfactory manner.

The treaty also makes the EU more accountable. It establishes, for the first time, a practical mechanism for involving national Parliaments in EU decision making. To ensure that the EU respects the principle of subsidiarity in practice—in other words, that it acts only where it can add value to national or regional action—national Parliaments will gain the power to send legislative proposals back for review, if one third of them object. It is, of course, for Parliament, not the Government, to decide how it will make use of the new power and I greatly welcome the Modernisation Committee's review of the scrutiny of EU business and the discussion in the scrutiny Committees on how the new provisions can be made to work effectively, in consultation with the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies.

Last night, sadly with little notice, the Conservative party published an alternative to our White Paper. It is entitled "The Truth about the European Constitution". We shall consider some aspects of the truth as Conservative Members perceive it later, but the document includes some proposals under which a future Conservative Government would try to change the EU's constitution. One proposal is not to tie in the yellow card procedure for national Parliaments to a change in voting systems, as we proposed: 55 per cent. of member states and 65 per cent. by population before new regulations or laws can be agreed. Conservatives propose that if only five national Parliaments object to any new or existing European legislation on the grounds of subsidiarity or proportionality, it should be withdrawn or repealed immediately. That is a good example of the Conservative party's incoherence.

Currently, one third of member states—nine—can exercise the yellow card. The Conservatives propose almost to halve that to five. They then decide that,
 
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instead of providing national Parliaments with a yellow card, thereby forcing the Commission and the Council to think again, they will give five member states, with no population quota, a total veto not only over proposed but over existing legislation.

The Conservative party claims to be in favour of the single market and reform of the common agricultural policy. Yet such an approach, which the right hon. and learned Gentleman has set out and approved, would prevent any further move towards opening up the single market and any further attempts, which we are leading, to implement the Lisbon agenda. He prattles on about the need for reform of the CAP, but his proposal would prevent any possibility of that. The Conservative party proposes that only five member states—Poland, France and two or three other small member states—could block any change. I see that the right hon. Gentleman is now trying to get hold of the document—he is reading it for the first time. I look forward to taking the debate to the country.

At least I have read the document properly—all of it—which is more than can be said of the right hon. and learned Gentleman.

The new treaty will make the European Union more flexible. In some areas, such as the single market, we obviously need common rules applying to all; but in others, such as the euro or the development of a European crisis management capacity, it makes sense to allow member states that want to co-operate more closely to do so. However—and here is the difference between what we want and the free-for-all Europe advocated by Conservative Members—we must also ensure that such co-operation works fairly, under agreed rules that protect every member's interests. The new treaty will give us that.

The enhanced co-operation will require the participation of at least a third of member states, which will need to work towards the EU's objectives in a way that does not undermine the single market. That, too, would be impossible to achieve if the right hon. and learned Gentleman's proposals for a veto to be given to any five member states, regardless of size, were implemented. It will be open to others wishing to join, but in foreign policy and defence such co-operation can begin only if all member states agree. That is one of the many beneficial changes that we have made to the draft constitution.

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