European Union Bill

Clause 6 lists those decisions that would always require approval by an Act of Parliament and a referendum. Most of the amendments that we have been considering today seek to add new provisions to clause 6. I want to try to do justice to each amendment and to the various topics that hon. Members on both sides of the Committee have raised in this debate. Let me turn first to the issue of citizenship, which is the subject of amendment 54, as well as the consequential amendment 55, both tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall). The amendments would mean that if a decision under article 25 of the TFEU were to add to or strengthen the list of rights for citizens of member states in the European Union contained in article 20(2) of that treaty, there would have to be a referendum before the United Kingdom could agree to it. I understand my hon. Friend's concerns, and he is right to say that the question of citizenship is important and sensitive. However, where I took issue with him was when he suggested that there was no limit to the ability of the European Union to confer new rights upon European citizens. There are a number of such limits specified in the treaties. Article 20(1) of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union states:"““Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship.””" Article 20 also states that ““rights””—that is, rights that people possess in their capacity as European Union citizens—shall be"““exercised in accordance with the conditions and limits defined by the Treaties””." Article 25 is not a new article, but it does concern a sensitive issue, and that is why the Bill proposes to strengthen parliamentary scrutiny of this important ratchet clause and to require that an Act of Parliament be passed before a Minister could notify approval by this country of a Council decision extending the rights attaching to EU citizenship. That is also the reason—I hope that this will give my hon. Friend some assurance—why the Bill puts a referendum lock on any proposal that the United Kingdom give up its veto over article 25. We have also put a referendum lock on any proposal that the UK should give up other vetoes in the treaty chapter on citizenship of the Union, such as its veto over the arrangements for allowing EU citizens to vote in local elections or the arrangements for allowing people to stand and vote in European parliamentary elections. However, we do not believe that we need a referendum before agreeing to legislation to strengthen or to add to the rights of citizens of member states under article 25, because such legislation can be made only within existing competence. If there were any proposal to change the treaty to extend those areas of competence on which the rights of EU citizens could be based, such a treaty change proposal would be caught automatically by clause 4 and its requirement for a referendum before any extension of or addition to European Union competence. My hon. Friends the Members for Witham (Priti Patel) and for St Austell and Newquay (Stephen Gilbert) both spoke about the common fisheries policy, as did the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell). In addressing amendment 81, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Witham, I acknowledge from the start that the Government completely accept that the common fisheries policy has major problems—or, in plain English, that it has failed and continues to fail. It has failed to deliver on conservation and has not protected fish stocks. At the same time, it has failed to provide an adequate sustainable living for our fishing communities. That is why the United Kingdom has been at the forefront in calling for radical reform of the policy. The Fisheries Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), will be pressing for fundamental changes to the policy at the forthcoming negotiations, to simplify and decentralise fisheries management. However, as was pointed out in an intervention from the Democratic Unionist Benches, when we talk about decentralisation, it is important that we take account of the interests of the devolved Administrations in the different parts of the United Kingdom.