1. ARTICLE 106(6) REGULATIONS ESTABLISHING
THE ECB
Letter from Melanie Johnson MP, Economic
Secretary to the Treasury to Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee
I am writing to bring you and the members of
your Committee up to date on our dealings with the Council Legal
Service over the right of the UK to vote on certain items of secondary
Community legislation relating to the ECB and adopted under Article
106(6) of the EC Treaty.
You may recall that my predecessor, Patricia
Hewitt, wrote to you in February, in response to various questions
raised by your Committee concerning this legislation. Her letter
explained that the Government was, at that time, in the process
of attempting to agree language on voting rights with the Council
Legal Service to record in the minutes of the 23 November 1998
ECOFIN Council which adopted the legislation in question. We were
also discussing language to incorporate in the minutes of the
29 June 1998 General Affairs Council which adopted earlier legislation
under Article 106(6). The letter indicated that, if suitable language
could not be agreed, it would be open to the UK to make a unilateral
statement for the minutes, setting out our view that the UK and
the other Outs were entitled to vote.
In the event, we were unable to agree language
with the Council Legal Service to record in the minutes of the
November ECOFIN Council which, in our view, did not prejudice
our position on voting rights. The Government has therefore tabled
a UK statement in the minutes of both the ECOFIN Council and the
GAC, explaining the basis for our view that the UK was entitled
to vote on the adoption of legislation under Article 106(6). At
the same time, nine of the participating Member States have tabled
a further statement in the ECOFIN minutes, which sets out their
alternative understanding. I attach for information the relevant
extracts from the Council minutes.
8 October 1999
Letter from Lord Tordoff, Chairman of
the Committee, to Melanie Johnson MP, Economic Secretary to the
Treasury
Thank you for your letter of 8 October, bringing
us up to date with the position on the disagreement about whether
the United Kingdom should have been entitled to vote on these
Regulations, even though it is not participating in EMU. I am
sorry to say that we had not received Patricia Hewitt's letter
of 12 February on this subject, but we now have a copy, and we
understand the present position.
However, to say that we understand the position
does not mean that we approve of it, we are glad to see that the
Government has been keeping up the pressure on this matter.
10 November 1999
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