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How real will that consultation be? We all know that the House of Lords has a crucial role in scrutinising on behalf of Parliament legislative proposals from the Commission. Indeed, the EU Select Committee and its sub-committees have a considerable reputation in Brussels for the quality of their scrutiny. But let us be frank, all of us who serve on those committees—until the end of the previous Session I was on the EU Select Committee, and I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, on the committee’s most useful impact assessment—are aware that it can be a struggle against Whitehall to carry out that scrutiny properly.
I was particularly struck by the powerful speech of my noble friend Lady Hanham about EU border controls. I shall suggest to my colleagues on EU Sub-Committee F that we study it carefully. I hope that the Leader of the House will deal with some of the points that my noble friend raised.
Whitehall likes to manage its affairs in Brussels on its own. It does not welcome parliamentary interference. That is demonstrated time and again by delays in producing Explanatory Memoranda, the non-availability of Ministers to appear in front of the committees and often, especially with the Home Office, long delays—and I mean months rather than weeks—in replying to letters. The noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, wrote to the Home Secretary herself on 17 January complaining about the delay in responses to Select Committee inquiries and in answering parliamentary Written Questions and responding to letters. We have not yet had a reply to that letter.
What is decided in Brussels is a product of horse-trading. It always has been and always will be. Deals are made, with the Foreign Office acting as broker. The Foreign Office will always try to get the best overall deal for Britain, but the problem is that the negotiations are often like a game of poker and the Foreign Office, although quite a good poker player, is always playing with other peoples' chips.
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We know, too, that when it suits the Government, there can be scrutiny override. Overrides are the product of collusion between arrogant civil servants and weak Ministers. Each is a replay of “Yes Minister”. In the most recent 12 months for which figures are available, up to June 2007, there have been 31 scrutiny overrides. That is a greater number than the 27 amendments that there have been to the United States Constitution since it was signed in 1789.
If all that is required for the use of the passerelle is a vote in both Houses, I foresee that, over a period, that will be less and less satisfactory. It will start fine, with nothing controversial. Then will come along something that really matters and the notice will be minimal. Quite apart from the whipping, which we expect, we will be told that for raisons d’état it is crucial that Parliament does not hold up the process of ratification.
The main basis for my fears is the way in which this new Labour Government—this is my biggest single criticism of them since they have been in power—have treated the House of Commons in the legislative process. I refer, of course, to the abominable constitutional aberration of having a timetable, a guillotine, on every Bill. That cuts short inconvenient scrutiny of legislation. Fortunately, for the present, the House of Lords is there as a back-up for proper scrutiny. That treatment of Parliament, and the meek compliance of the House of Commons, is one of the reasons for the growing mistrust of politicians. I hope only that we shall never decline to the level in France, where all too often the mob, rather than their Parliament, is seen as the defender of the people.
I am neither a Eurosceptic nor a Euro-enthusiast. I am a Euro-challenger, because I do not believe that we should lightly put the habits—good or bad—of our people in the hands of the Eurocrats. Brussels must be closely monitored, and the House of Lords is the best, and, at present, the only body capable of doing it.
8.54 pm
Baroness Northover: My Lords, I hesitate to contribute to this debate, given the long experience, expertise and record of campaigning on the EU that marks out participants today.
For me, the EU has been part of the landscape just about all my life. For my mother, who had been endlessly evacuated from London during the war with the primary school children she sought to teach, the Common Market meant a reduction in the knee-jerk nationalism that she felt had contributed to what her father suffered in the First World War and what she, her family and friends suffered in the Second World War. She saw it as a remarkable, positive development. We must always remember the bigger picture, as my noble friend Lady Williams, the noble Lords, Lord Jay and Lord Tugendhat, and others have so strongly reminded us. President Sarkozy was surely right when he described the EU as,
There seems to be greater acceptance of the EU among the younger generation. My own children, who are used to travelling to the Continent and who are,
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My noble friend Lord McNally said in his passionate speech that we need to appeal to the younger generation. My noble friend Lady Williams put it beautifully, contrasting the two methods of attempting to spread democracy: to eastern European countries via the EU or to Iraq via invasion. Kids, many of whom are opposed to the Iraq war, will understand that. Younger people are often the ones who sense that globalisation means that we have to be part of a larger whole and that we are not an imperial power. Indeed, they cannot even remember those all-pink maps. We must be part of that larger whole if we are to tackle major problems such as climate change. A recent Guardian poll made this clear when it showed that 76 per cent of 18 to 24 year-olds think the EU is good for Britain, against only 50 per cent of pensioners. Those of us who are pro-EU should take heart from that.
One area that concerns the younger generation is worldwide poverty, on which I shall focus. The EU has already been a force for good, and with better streamlining it can be even more effective in the future. The EU used to look particularly to its near neighbours and its foreign policy objectives when delivering aid. That was unsurprising in a Cold War era when stability and prosperity on its borders were of key importance. That contributed, as we have heard, to the collapse of the Soviet Union and to the expansion of the EU, so it is not insignificant. The noble Lord, Lord Patten of Barnes, in particular can be credited with doing much to make EU aid more poverty-focused—something that is increasingly important in our globalising age generally. We cannot say that poor impoverished states such as Somalia or Afghanistan do not in the end affect us, even if we are looking only at self-interest. The Lisbon treaty takes this forward. It states:
“Union development cooperation policy shall have as its primary objective the reduction and, in the long term, the eradication of poverty. The Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries”.
For the first time, the EU takes the relief of poverty as its aim in giving aid, rather than seeing it as tangled with its foreign policy objectives. It also recognises that as the world’s largest trading bloc—it is surely through trade that the poorest countries will come out of poverty—other measures that it takes are also crucial.
In the 1960s, the development of Asia was despaired of. It would never develop, not least because it had the wrong religions. It did not have Calvinism, it seemed. How wrong we were. Africa often causes despair, yet we see hopeful signs of development. The EU has a major part to play, just as it must in assisting the peaceful development of areas such as the Middle
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Collectively, Europe is the world’s largest aid donor. Members of the European Union together provided more than half of total global development assistance. One quarter of the UK’s aid is channelled through the EU. Some say that we should offer aid only bilaterally, but then we lose our influence over the biggest aid giver, we no longer encourage other countries to come up to our levels and we risk duplicating effort. The need to streamline aid giving is urgent. Forty years ago, most poor nations had an average of about one dozen donors. Now it is three times that number and the poorest countries may receive about two donor missions every day, for which they must prepare and must meet different targets. No wonder they spend so much time simply on that. It makes sense therefore to have fewer, not more, donors, and improvements in the way that the EU gives aid are very encouraging. The Lisbon treaty's statement on the EU’s new poverty focus is a further move in the right direction.
The EU's strength in human rights, democracy and freedom, which we have heard about, is also critical for developing countries. We certainly heard about that in relation to eastern Europe. I would also add that equality for women is fundamental, especially in northern European countries, from which we draw strength in the United Kingdom, but it is also of vital importance for developing countries. HIV/AIDS will never be adequately combated without addressing gender inequality.
When I first came to your Lordships’ House we were voting on Section 28. As we went down in flames on those first votes, my late lamented friend, Lord Russell, said to me, “Time is on your side”. How right he was on that. My sense is that time is on our side in debates over the EU. To think of the nation state as the natural base for global action seems simply out of date. To those who are younger than me, as they surf the world on the internet, that must seem even more so. The fact that we now have 27 nations linked together does not seem for me so startling. As so many other noble Lords have said, if the rules need to be updated so that those 27 can work more effectively together, what is so frightening about that?
9.02 pm
The Earl of Liverpool: My Lords, some of my remarks will have echoes of contributions made earlier by, among others, my noble friends Lord Howell, Lord Forsyth and Lord Blackwell, but I shall try to get there by a slightly different route. Recently, a booklet entitled, The Work of the House of Lords, helpfully was circulated to noble Lords by the noble Baroness the Lord President. It includes an important chapter, entitled, “Holding government to account”, which forms a vital part of our unwritten constitution and, I believe, is a timely reminder to us all.
The simple fact is—it has been said repeatedly today—that at the last election all three parties clearly stated that they would hold a referendum on the EU constitution. There is no credible argument for saying
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The author of the constitution, Giscard d’Estaing, has already been extensively quoted in this debate. I thought that I had unearthed a new quote, but, unfortunately, my noble friend Lord Ferrers shot my fox. But it is a good one and so I shall repeat it. He said:
“Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we do not dare to present to them directly”.
Those words could easily have been lifted straight from the pages of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and it is worth reminding ourselves that George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. Perhaps that should have set some alarm bells ringing.
I should like also to quote the Minister for business and enterprise, the noble Lord, Lord Jones of Birmingham, who said:
I am sorry that the noble Lord is not in his place because I was hoping to ask him whether he stands by his words, and if so, whether he will vote for a referendum if and when the opportunity arises.
The Government say that they have secured their red lines, but sadly I believe that that is delusional. We all know that sooner or later the pressure will become intolerable and they will be inexorably eroded and eventually revoked. In this regard I pray in aid the forfeit of our rebate last year in return for, as far as I can see, precisely nothing. The result of that, as disclosed by the Government in footnotes to recent Budget documents, is that the net cost of EU membership, which was £3.3 billion in 2006-07, will rise to £4.1 billion in 2008 and £6.1 billion in 2010. In other words, it will practically double over three years.
I am afraid that it gets worse. In Article 3.4 of the treaty the following words are to be found:
Perhaps this is an early example of the ratchet or passerelle because these words were not in the original proposed constitution. Those 14 words are, I believe, of crucial importance. If this treaty is passed unamended, we the British public will yet again be denied a referendum as and when the euro is foisted upon us because we will be told that it was all agreed in this treaty. A number of noble Lords have already referred to the ratchet provision in the treaty which guarantees that power will be steadily transferred to Brussels, and it is worth remembering that ratchets have no reverse gear.
I am very sorry to say that our politicians are not held in high esteem at the present time. Part of the reason for that is that there is a perceived lack of trust. If ever your Lordships’ House had an important job
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The Eurocrats should have nothing to fear because they have powerful advocates. I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Kinnock, who certainly had the wind in his sails and was very persuasive. They have powerful advocates in Parliament and elsewhere, and I believe that the British people would be interested to hear those arguments as they seek to reach a decision. The restoration of political integrity is a prize we should strive for. I should have thought all sides of the argument would agree with that.
9.09 pm
Lord Renwick of Clifton: My Lords, we have in this House an extraordinary array of expertise on this matter, including most of those who were involved on our behalf in the principal negotiations in Europe over the past 30 years, in my own case the Fontainebleau agreement correcting the British budgetary contribution and the Single European Act, which was intended to put an end to all the barriers to free trade in goods and services across Europe by 1992.
There are two main issues before the House—of substance and of procedure. We can all recall the many occasions on which your Lordships have been most solemnly advised that it is not for us unelected representatives to challenge the sanctity of manifesto commitments; instead we must bow down before them. What a delicious irony, therefore, it is that there now rests with this House the only remaining chance of insisting that the Government and other parties should honour their manifesto commitments. Whatever we may think about the substance of this treaty and whether or not it is in this country’s interests for it to be adopted, the indisputable fact is that a referendum was promised on this matter and no amount of special pleading will suffice to prove that it was not.
The House of Commons Select Committee has pronounced that this document is “substantially equivalent” to the European constitution. The same has been said by every other European Government. It has been left only to ours to pretend that it is not. Every Member of the House, wherever they sit and however they propose to vote on this constitutional treaty, knows perfectly well why the manifesto commitment is being ignored and a referendum denied. It is because the Government believe they would lose it. This is not a course of action likely to enhance their reputation or prospects of electoral success. How do we explain this volte-face? We can only do so by concluding, in the words of Bertolt Brecht, that the people have lost the confidence of the Government.
This is not a situation of the noble Baroness’s making and we all have some sympathy with her, but could she reassure us that if the Government were to suffer a rush of blood to the head and propose that we should join the euro, the manifesto commitment would
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As to the substance of the Bill, does this represent a further stage in European integration? Self-evidently it does and we should not pretend otherwise. There will in future be a President of the European Council serving for two and a half years. It will be interesting to see how national Governments co-exist with such a figure. The conflation of the High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy and the External Relations Commissioner in a post which is supposed to be that of European Foreign Minister—the title having been changed, according to Chancellor Merkel, purely in order to appease the British—represents a potentially dangerous elimination of the distinction between community competence and intergovernmental co-operation. The new External Action Service clearly is intended to be a more than embryonic European Foreign Service.
Other Members of the House have pointed out the extensions of competence in other areas, in particular in justice and home affairs, with potentially unpredictable consequences. Meanwhile, President Sarkozy was successful in insisting on the removal from the treaty of the commitment to “undistorted competition”.
The most fragile of all the arguments advanced in favour of the Bill is that the document represents the end of European institutional reform. The Government cannot possibly believe this. Every previous institutional treaty has been followed by a renewed attempt to take the integrationist vision to the next stage, and this one will be no exception.
Of course important points have been won by our negotiators and they should be congratulated on that. I am not a root and branch opponent of the treaty, but let me try to explain why an ungrateful nation is not more appreciative of those efforts. There are many aspects of the EU today which must cause the most reasonable of people a great deal of concern. The reaction of the Commission to an audit report setting out the vast scale of corruption in Community finances was to fire the auditor, an action for which the director of any publicly listed company here might expect to go to gaol. We are now in the 15th successive year in which the auditors have declined to sign off the accounts.
In this country, public resistance to further integration and to more government from Brussels is not foolish or misguided. These sentiments are shared by a large proportion of the business community and the financial services industry. The reason for this is not far to seek. For 47 years after the entry into force of the treaty of Rome, and 22 years after the signature of the Single European Act, it is hard to find a single British business leader who believes that there is anything approaching a level playing field for British business in Europe.
Instead of further market-opening measures, we have had a truly spectacular market-closing measure, in the form of the takeover directive, denounced by the Competition Commissioner as intended to entrench the power of national Governments to prevent takeovers when it suits them to do so. While it is common
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In the financial services sector, efforts have been made to erode the competitive advantages of the City of London through regulation from Brussels. The reason given by the Bank of England for its failure to take action to assist Northern Rock was the fear that this might run counter to EU competition rules. Does anyone believe that the French would have failed to act to save one of their financial institutions on those grounds? In fact, a €15 billion bail-out of Credit Lyonnais was engineered without any protest from the Commission at all.
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