APPENDIX 1: LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN FROM
THE MINISTER
Thank you for your letter of 17 July 2007, regarding
the IGC and the Reform Treaty. You asked for comments on the following
points.
The IGC Mandate
The Government believes that the IGC Mandate agreed
at the June European Council will provide for a more effective,
efficient EU, better able to act where it is in our interests
for it to do so, and which protects the UK's red lines. HMG wants
to ensure that the Reform Treaty reflects the IGC Mandate in detail
and will defend that position as necessary in discussions during
the IGC. The Portuguese Presidency has set out an ambitious timetable
for agreement of the Reform Treaty, which HMG supports. Other
Member States have also made clear their support for this objective.
To achieve that, we shall need to follow precisely the terms of
the mandate agreed at the June European Council.
Transparency and explanation
FCO officials have worked with your Committee Clerks
to create a distribution list so that Presidency papers can be
forwarded during the IGC. The first document, the draft Reform
Treaty text (French language version) was sent to your Committee,
the Libraries of both Houses, the Foreign Affairs Committee and
the European Scrutiny Committee on Monday 23 July. We shall forward
the English language version as soon as we get it, which we expect
to be early next week. The first working documents for the legal
experts who will prepare the draft Reform Treaty have also been
circulated to the Committee Clerks and my officials will review
these arrangements regularly with the Clerks to ensure that they
are working effectively.
The White Paper on the British approach to the IGC
was published on 23 July and I gave an oral statement to the House
of Commons to announce its release. Copies were delivered to the
Committee office on the morning of publication, which I trust
you found useful. The White Paper is also available at www.europe.
gov.uk
The White Paper clearly sets out the various elements
of the draft IGC Mandate and the Government's view on each of
the proposals. Our website (address above) provides information
and references on a range of EU issues and we are currently developing
pages on the website addressing common questions about the Reform
Treaty. We will look for other opportunities to provide information
for the public throughout the IGC process.
As we discussed in the evidence session of 12 July,
we do not currently propose to produce a detailed comparative
analysis of the Reform Treaty and the current Treaties. It is
not usual procedure for the Government to produce such a document.
The analysis of the Constitutional Treaty (the Commentary) was
an exception due to the nature of the Treaty, which repealed previous
Treaties and re-founded the Union on a single Treaty base. However,
I take the Committee's views on board and we will review the situation
throughout the IGC process.
Devolved administrations
Following a similar request from the European Scrutiny
Committee, the Government has agreed to make a positive statement
in Explanatory Memoranda that, where the EM covers an issue where
they have an interest, the devolved administrations have been
consulted.
Council transparency
The June 2006 European Council agreed an "overall
policy on transparency", the main effect of which was to
open up to the public all deliberations on co-decided legislation.
This provides for:
· opening
to the public of the presentation and final deliberation of legislative
acts to be adopted by co-decision and, unless the Council or Coreper
decide otherwise, of all other Council deliberations on such acts;
· opening
to the public of the first deliberations on important new legislative
proposals other than those to be adopted by co-decision, as well
as the subsequent deliberations unless the Council or Coreper
decide otherwise;
· holding
of regular public debates on important issues;
· and
holding of public debates on the programming of the Union's work.
Furthermore since July 2006 Council deliberations
and debates and other events such as press conferences have been
broadcast live through video-streaming on the website of the Council,
and from September 2006, all public debates and deliberations
have been retransmitted in all languages. Live-streaming of events
has also been accessible from the Finnish, German and current
Portuguese Presidency websites.
The Government fully supports these measures and
awaits the outcome of the second report on council transparency
to assess how well the new practices are functioning. As agreed
with the Finns during their Presidency in 2006, the Portuguese
Presidency will report back in December 2007.
Ratification
I can confirm that any future amending Treaty will
be presented to Parliament and will be handled in line with established
practices which allow both Houses to scrutinise the Treaty.
Treaty provisions: Role of national parliaments
As we discussed in the evidence session of 12 July,
the wording of the new Article on the role of national parliaments
is inappropriate. This will be raised during the IGC and we will
press for more appropriate language.
I note your request that the possibility of including
in the Protocol the Commission's commitment to responding to national
parliaments on a range of matters, not limited to subsidiarity
and proportionality, be raised in the IGC. I appreciate your concern
that the current arrangements are protected but I stress, as I
did in the evidence session, that we would be reluctant to reopen
negotiation on the substance of the IGC mandate.
The Commission's commitment to considering the comments
of national parliaments on new proposals and consultation papers
is enshrined in the June 2006 European Council Conclusions. It
is a political commitment which is working well, and with the
encouragement and participation of COSAC, there is no reason why
it should not continue. As the Committee noted when commenting
on the arrangements in the 2006 Annual Report, 'no changes to
the existing treaties of the EU is needed for these exchanges
to take place.'
Treaty provisions: the Charter
You raised the issue of the UK-specific Protocol
secured for the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Protocol is
drafted in very clear terms and will be interpreted by the courts
and Member States in the way I have described. You ask whether
the Charter might be used to interpret the extent of ECHR guarantees,
which are binding in the UK. The Charter provides (article II-112
in the 2004 version which will be adopted) that rights corresponding
to ECHR rights have the same meaning and scope as in the ECHR.
The Explanations to the Charter confirm that "to ensure the
necessary consistency between the charter and the ECHR ... insofar
as the rights in the present Charter also correspond to the rights
guaranteed by the ECHR, the meaning and scope of those rights,
including authorised limitations, are the same as those laid down
by the ECHR". It is therefore provided that the ECHR will
be used to interpret the Charter and not the other way around.
Treaty provisions: Institutional matter—the
Council and the Commission.
The Reform Treaty makes provision for team presidencies
in the future.
Joint working between Presidencies is already taking
place. The Seville European Council in June 2002 agreed that future
Presidencies should periodically publish a joint work programme.
Combined work programmes are the result of contacts between three
countries which set out an indicative picture of Council business
in the coming 18 months. An Explanatory Memorandum (19079/06);
which was deposited in Parliament on 2 February 2007, sets out
the current work programmes in more detail.
We anticipate that the new arrangements will be an
evolution of current practices.
Commission size
The proposals for reducing the size of the Commission
are part of the overall IGC Mandate agreement and will contribute
to the stated aim, enshrined in the Mandate, of "enhancing
the efficiency … of the enlarged Union". HMG believes
that the IGC Mandate should not be re-opened and we hope that
other Member States, the Commission and European Parliament will
continue to support that position.
Treaty provisions: Passerelle
All passerelles are subject to unanimity. In addition,
use of the three new passerelles in the Reform Treaty that provide
for simplified treaty revision procedures in wide-ranging areas
would have to be approved by national parliaments. It will be
a matter for national parliaments to decide how this approval
will be given.
Jim Murphy MP
Minister for Europe
31 July 2007
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