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Lord Cope of Berkeley: My Lords, after the noble Lord the Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms has given the House such a welcome present, it would seem entirely appropriate to wish him on behalf of these Benches, I am sure, of the whole House, and certainly of the usual channels, a very happy birthday.
Lord Cope of Berkeley: My Lords, if the arithmetic is correct—I am not at all sure that it is—it is a significant birthday. More importantly, we wish him many happy returns both of this day and of these fits of generosity.
Lord Carter: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. Just to show that the Chief Whip has a heart, I would have made the announcement even if today had not been my birthday.
European Communities (Amendment) Bill
3.39 p.m.
Clause 1 [Incorporation of provisions of the Treaty of Nice]:
Lord Howell of Guildford moved Amendment No. 1:
- Page 1, line 9, at beginning insert "Article 1 (other than paragraph 1, subsection 1, revising Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union),"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 1, standing in my name and that of my noble friends, concerns the wish to revise Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union. Before dealing with the amendment I shall make one or two preliminary remarks. All noble Lords would agree that, since your Lordships addressed the Bill in Committee, the context in which we are debating these matters has moved on considerably. Many aspects of the scene in relation to the European Union, its development, its policies and activities and this country's relationship with its European neighbours have evolved and altered.
That demonstrates a point made in Committee, and which will be made again on Report, that the Nice Treaty, which the Bill seeks to enshrine, was not made of lasting material. In many respects its foundations were ephemeral. It brings home a fact, which is dawning on many of those who want to see the best arrangements for the best kind of future European Union, that the kind of treaty-making exemplified at Nice is not necessarily the best way to proceed.
We know that enlargement rolls ahead. Those negotiations are very active. There are many difficulties but matters proceed, as some of us always said would happen, with or without ratification of the Nice Treaty. Indeed, we argued that if the treaty had been confined only to the mechanics required for aspects of enlargement, the whole thing would have gone much more smoothly. At present, it is stymied or blocked by the Irish referendum.
I turn to the amendment. In Committee, some of your Lordships indicated that they were not entirely satisfied with the issues raised when we discussed the revision of Article 7. I have therefore felt it right to bring forward the amendment. There were clearly some questions that your Lordships felt should have been answered which were not. Specifically—as your Lordships will recall—the amendment concerns new provisions offered in the Nice Treaty whereby, if there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a member state of the principles outlined in Article 6.1 of the treaty, then, acting by a fourth-fifths majority, the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Ministers may take certain actions and restrict the rights of member states.
Noble Lords will recall from the Committee stage that attention was focused particularly at the time on the Austrian problem which had arisen some time before with the moments in power of Mr Haider and his unacceptable and unattractive views. But the broader issue remains. To what extent should the central institutions of the European Union intervene in dealing with the principles and methods by which member states are governed. Should the European Union intervene as it sought to do with unhappy results in the case of Austria, or should these matters be dependent upon the democratic vigour and internal politics and internal rules and laws of the member states' democracies?
No one doubts that the principles outlined in Article 6.1 are those which should inform and guide every democratic structure and entity, including nation states, unions and any other alliance or club or group of people seeking a pattern of good governance. But the question hangs in the air: does the duty of enforcing this fall to the higher institutions of the European Union or does it fall to the nation states? Behind that there is another question raised by the Laeken declaration and since the Nice Treaty. Who has the legitimacy to assert that these principles must be enforced? Is it the member states with their elected governments and whatever solution or pattern those elected governments may throw up, or does the Union
have some higher legitimacy somehow acquired from loftier levels and not from the fact that member states have signed treaties bringing it into being?The authors of the Larken declaration clearly adhered to this higher theory. They stated:
- "The European Union derives its legitimacy from the democratic values it projects, the aims it pursues and the powers and instruments it possesses".
We have seen what has happened as a result of the policies enshrined in this article being pursued—the difficulties over Austria. Since then there have been suggestions—only suggestions I concede—from the Brussels authorities and from the presidency that Italy is in some way "under observation". Indeed, there were quite vehement personal attacks on Italian political leaders following the resignation of Mr Ruggiero—a general insinuation that in some way the dogma of Europe was being questioned and that therefore Italy was behaving badly and should watch out because otherwise along could come—if not the revised Article 7 because we have not yet ratified the treaty—the earlier versions of Article 7 to put Italy under pressure.
The view from these Benches is that a Union in which too much energy is expended by its members lecturing each other on how their internal affairs should be conducted will not be a very happy club at all. I could not resist a perhaps improper smile this morning when reading that we were receiving a lecture in this country from German Ministers about economic weakness unless we joined the euro. That is a question that I certainly do not want to raise now. But it seemed a rather inappropriate lecture to be delivered from a country which is going through considerable economic difficulties to the detriment of the whole European Union.
We believe that these powers are unnecessary. They are part of a broader trend and tendency which we shall be debating later. This has led to the current very strong pressures for two things; first, the full adoption of a charter of fundamental rights—not just basic rights like these, but a vast range of social priorities and rights which, important as they are, many of us believe belong to member states, and, secondly, the move now definitely afoot, to go to a constitution. We shall during this Report stage look closely at how these moves are being organised and the nature of the convention being set up to carry them forward.
We question whether the energies of the European Union, if it is concerned with greater democracy, should be directed in these ways to the member states. We feel that perhaps it might do better to concentrate on the severe democratic deficiencies in the current EU
structure which are giving cause for enormous concern and raise the whole question of the legitimacy of the Union—a matter which has been raised by the Commission in its paper on future European governance. Again, that is a matter we shall come to later.If the European Union institutions want to be in the business of improving democracy, we must turn to the Bible and suggest that there is a little too much in this article of a mote in thy brother's eye and not enough of considering the beam in thine own eye. It is in that spirit that I move the amendment. I beg to move.
Lord Williamson of Horton: My Lords, when I saw Amendments Nos. 1 to 14, I thought for a moment that it was a comprehension test for the House of Lords to prove that we were a good revising Chamber. It is notable that Amendments Nos. 1 to 14 give no indication of the subject matter, but, thanks to due diligence, I have cracked the code.
There is a serious question about all the amendments to Clause 1; that is, whether we can incorporate into the definition of "the Treaties" and "the Community Treaties" in the European Communities Act 1972 the parts of the Treaty of Nice that do not give rise to Community rights and obligations. I may come back to that point in respect of later amendments.
Amendment No. 1 would move Article 1 of the Treaty of Nice into Clause 1 of the Bill and then strike out again the provision relating to the possible determination by the European Council of a clear risk of a serious breach by a member state of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. The amendment seems perverse, because the treaty, as it stands, provides that the Council may determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a member state, and, if that is determined, the Council can suspend some of the rights of the member state. That is quite harsh.
The effect of the addition, which is in the Treaty of Nice, is to soften the harshness already in the treaty, because the Council must now listen to the member state and may then determine that there is not a breach, but the risk of a breach. That does not trigger any suspension of rights. For that reason, there is a slight improvement in the Treaty of Nice, so I cannot support Amendment No. 1.
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