Letter from Mr Jim Murphy MP, Minister
for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to the Chairman of
the Committee, 31 July 2007
Thank you for your letter of 11 July 2007 requesting
written clarification of some of the points raised during our
evidence session on 4 July, and for your letter of 19 July 2007
regarding the Commission opinion on the Intergovernmental Conference
(IOC).
The query in your letter of 11 July on the Charter
and the Protocol secured by the UK was covered in my letter to
you of 16 July. I attach a copy for ease of reference.
I agree with you on the importance of transparency
and keeping Parliament informed during the IGC. I am happy to
repeat a commitment I made in my recent evidence session with
the Lords EU Select Committee on 12 July. All IGC papers which
are not classified or circulated in confidence will be placed
in the libraries of both Houses and forwarded to the Committee
Clerks for information. Where there is any uncertainty over a
document's status we will press the Council Secretariat and Presidency
for permission to share it with Parliament.
FCO officials have worked with your Committee
Clerks to create a distribution list to enable the forwarding
of Presidency papers during the IGC. The first document, the draft
Reform Treaty text (French language version) was sent to our Committee,
the Libraries of both Houses, the Foreign Affairs Committee and
the Lords EU Select Committee on Monday 23 July. We shall forward
the English language version as soon as we get it.
Both the Foreign Secretary and I stand ready
to give oral evidence on the progress of the IGC. I know that
your Committee clerks are in touch with FCO officials regarding
dates.
As we discussed during the evidence session
on 4 July, the draft IGC Mandate was circulated by the German
Presidency at 5pm on 19 June. It was discussed by Ministers in
the days leading up to the June European Council. The IGC, which
opened on 23 July, will now consider the detail of the mandate
with the aim of agreeing a Treaty text by the 18-19 October 2007
informal meeting of Heads of State and Government in Lisbon. This
is an ambitious timetable, but achievable. The Government has
set out its approach to the IGC in the White Paper presented to
Parliament on 23 July.
You also raised the issue of the interpretation
of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by the European Court of
Justice (ECJ), and how the concept of the uniform application
of Union law would impact upon it.
The UK-specific Protocol which the Government
secured is not an "opt-out" from the Charter. Rather,
the Protocol clarifies the effect the Charter will have in the
UK. The UK Protocol confirms that nothing in the Charter extends
the ability of any court to strike down UK law. In particular,
the social and economic provisions of Title IV of the Charter
give people no greater rights than are given in UK law. Any Charter
rights referring to national law and practice will have the same
limitations as those rights in national law. The Protocol confirms
that since the Charter creates no rights, or circumstances in
which those rights can be relied upon before the courts, it does
not change the status quo. Your specific question on the Protocol
reference to Title IV was answered in my letter of 16 July.
In your letter of 19 July, you asked about the
Commission's view of the effect of the Charter. The Commission's
opinion states that "the Charter of Fundamental Rights will
offer Europeans guarantees with the same legal status as the treaties
themselves, bringing together civil, political, economic and social
rights which the Union's action must respect." The IGC mandate
provides that the Charter of Fundamental Rights text will not
be included in the text of the new Reform Treaty. The Reform Treaty
will include a legally binding reference to a separate Charter
text (the text agreed at the 2004 ICC on the Constitutional Treaty)
making the Charter binding on EU Institutions and Member States
when implementing EU law. HMG supports the Charter which reaffirms
rights and principles already recognised in EU and national law
but makes them more visible and binding on the EU institutions.
The Commission opinion also states that the
Charter "provisions will also apply in full to acts of implementation
of Union law, even if not in all Member States." This refers
to the legally binding UK-specific Protocol secured in the IGC
mandate.
We have submitted an Explanatory Memorandum
on the Commission's opinion of the IGC in the usual way. Your
letter of 19 July also raised a number of issues regarding the
Commission opinion on the convening of an IGC to draft the EU
Reform Treaty. In answer to your first point, HMG supports the
June 2007 European Council conclusions on the IGC mandate, also
supported by the Commission in their formal opinion. The mandate
provides the exclusive basis and framework for the work of the
IGC. Such a mandate was necessary to ensure that the timetable
for agreement of a new Reform Treaty text by the end of 2007 and
ratification by mid-2009 was met. We are content with the draft
IGC Mandate agreed at the June European Council. As the Prime
Minister has said "we secured our negotiating objectives
and we want them reflected in all the detail of the agreements
over the next few months."
You also raise the issue of the structure of
the existing EU Treaties. The Reform Treaty will contain two substantive
clauses amending the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the
Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC). The Treaties
will maintain their distinctive features (eg CFSP will remain
in the TEU). The TEU will keep its present name and the TEC will
be called the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union. The remainder
of the third pillar for police and judicial co-operation in criminal
matters will form part of the latter Treaty. The UK will, however,
have the right to opt in to individual measures.
You make particular reference to Article 47
TEU and the relative status of the EU and EC Treaties. In accordance
with the IGC Mandate, that article will not be retained but there
will be new Articles in both the Treaty on the European Union
and the re-named Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
which will state that the two Treaties will have the same legal
value.
I am copying this letter to Lord Grenfell, Chairman
of the Lords European Union Committee, copying to the Clerks of
both Committees and to Les Saunders at the Cabinet Office, Tom
Hines, Departmental Scrutiny Coordinator, and Guy Janes, Select
Committee Liaison Officer.
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