Memorandum by Lord Pearson of Rannoch
The area upon which I would like to give evidence
to your inquiry into the Impact of the Reform Treaty is the judicial
activism of the Luxembourg Court and the consequent unreliability
of the Government's "red lines".
To this end I very much hope you will be able
to hear oral evidence from Martin Howe, QC, who is one of the
leading British experts on this subject. I enclose a recent article
he has written, which I urge the Committee to read (not printed).
I also suggest that your Committee considers
the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee's Report on Article 308
of the EC Treaty (29th Report of the 2006-07 Session published
on 13th July). This Report should be taken in conjunction with
a selection of the Written and Oral Questions I have tabled recently
on the use to which Article 308 has been put. Particularly important
is the Court's judgement in 1996 that the first condition of Article
308, to the effect that the Community can only take action "in
the course of the operation of the common market" need not
apply and that action can be taken more generally under the Article
"in pursuit of a Community objective". I am of course
happy to help you identify any Questions and Answers your Committee
might find useful.
Apart from that, I regret that the Committee
is merely considering the impact which the Lisbon Treaty will
make upon the existing situation under the Treaty of Nice. My
colleagues and I in the UK Independence Party believe that that
existing situation has largely removed our right to govern ourselves,
is already very damaging and will eventually prove disastrous
to our economy. My reasons for this are set out in my debate on
8th June, which refers to earlier debates on the same subject,
when the Government steadfastly refused to carry out any form
of cost-benefit analysis of our membership of the European Union.
May I suggest that at some point your Committee should examine
and publish the cumulative effects of Treaty changes since the
referendum of 1975?
Together with colleagues, I am of course happy
to give oral evidence on any of this, should the Committee so
require.
14 December 2007
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