Export Control (Iran) (Amendment) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Howell, for his comments. I think we all share his concern that EU legislation should be subjected to proper scrutiny and that this House and the other place should have the opportunity properly to scrutinise both EU measures and the domestic legislation that implements them. First, it is simply not true that the Government laid the order without explaining to Parliament how it would be implemented. The December EU Council regulation that led to the order was cleared from scrutiny without comment but was cleared by the European Union Select Committee in this House and by the equivalent committee in another place. The committees had the benefit of a full Explanatory Memorandum. Secondly, I am very clear that it is appropriate for the European Commission to exercise the powers that were delegated by the regulation. As the FCO Explanatory Memorandum to the regulation says, it improves the speed and efficiency of the process in Brussels. It does not cede any further policy control to the Commission, as any revisions to the list must still come from the United Nations Security Council, from the UN sanctions committee or from member states. That is not, of course, a complete answer to the noble Lord’s questions. To be clear, we are talking about two instruments. The first instrument is an EU Council regulation that was adopted in December 2009 and amended the earlier 2007 Council regulation that imposed sanctions against Iran. The Commission has always been able to make minor amendments to that regulation. The December regulation simply added a power for the Commission to amend the lists of prohibited and of controlled goods and technology on the basis of information provided by member states. The second instrument—an order under the European Communities Act 1972 and the Export Control Act 2002—just updated a 2007 order that created offences and penalties and supplemented the original EU Council regulation. The order is very short, and the Merits Committee has not suggested that it implemented the December regulation inappropriately. Indeed, there was very little scope for policy choices on implementation. As noble Lords will know, we do not have to transpose the substantive provisions of EU regulations into national legislation as we do with directives. The debate is ostensibly about the order, but most of the argument has been about the regulations. In preparing for this debate, I have taken the opportunity to look back over the explanatory material which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office prepared for the December EU Council regulation and the explanatory material which BIS then prepared for the order. I am very clear that the Commission’s powers to amend the EU regulations were properly set out there, and that the Commission can amend the list of controlled goods and technology, ""on the basis of information provided by either the United Nations Security Council or the sanctions committee, or by member states"," and that there is no formal reference back to the Council. The FCO memorandum was submitted in mid-October, so there is no question of there having been insufficient time for comments. It may be that the Government can consider ways in which articles with provision for the Commission to amend sanctions regulations can be highlighted even further, but I do not accept the accusation implied by the Motion that we did not do enough to bring the effect of the December regulation on the 2010 order to the House’s attention. Some commentators in the Opposition might say that we have ceded too much control to Europe. My response is that we have not ceded any powers, as the Lisbon treaty did not change the intergovernmental nature of common foreign or security policy or member states’ responsibility for foreign policy. EU member states make foreign policy decisions unanimously and case by case. That is what we have done here. We worked at the EU to get the right EU-wide policy on Iran that included a tough sanctions package to accompany and reinforce existing UN measures. This has had a greater impact than unilateral UK action. I am in complete agreement that we need to be careful about what powers are delegated to the Commission and on what terms. However, I am satisfied that, in the particular circumstances of this case, the delegation was appropriate. As the noble Lord, Lord Sykes, says, there is a delicate situation in the Middle East. No reasonable person would disagree that there is a real threat posed by Iran’s proliferation of sensitive nuclear activities—it is in defiance of five UN Security Council resolutions—and that this threat needs to be carefully managed, ensuring that each member state has the time and opportunity to consider any proposed changes in approach.