European Union Bill

I shall bear your guidance very firmly in mind, Mr Brady, and simply say that the Government do not propose to specify in this legislation any further thresholds on the turnout. In response to my hon. Friend, I mentioned the Government's reasons why the franchise should be extended, where relevant, to Gibraltar, but it is worth me explaining, because there has been some concern in the House, why people from the Crown dependencies and British overseas territories will not be included in the franchise. Very little EU law applies to the Crown dependencies, mainly because of the provisions of our Act of accession to the then EEC in 1972, and also because of the current provisions of the European Union treaties. By virtue of article 355(5)(c) of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union, the European Union treaties apply to the Crown dependencies, but only to the extent described in protocol 3, which provides that EU rules on customs matters and quantitative restrictions apply to the Crown dependencies"““under the same conditions as they apply to the United Kingdom””," that the Crown dependencies are inside the EU customs territory and that certain aspects of the common agricultural policy are applicable to allow the free movement of agricultural products. Provisions on the free movement of persons and services do not apply to the Crown dependencies. The people of the dependencies benefit from those provisions in the rest of the EU only if they have close ties with the UK—for example if they, their parent or grandparent were born, adopted or naturalised in the UK, or if they have"““at any time been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom for five years.””" The Crown dependencies neither contribute to nor are eligible to benefit from EU funds. They are not subject to EU measures on taxation, nor are they for any purposes within the EU's fiscal territory. Unlike the citizens of Gibraltar, citizens of the Crown dependencies do not vote in European parliamentary elections. Overseas territories other than Gibraltar are not members of the European Union, but all apart from Bermuda and the sovereign base areas have a special relationship or association with the European Union. That association is enshrined in European legislation, most recently in the Council's 2001 overseas association decision, under which qualifying territories are eligible for European development fund finance. Neither the Crown dependencies nor the overseas territories are looking for closer political integration with the EU, and through official-level engagement with colleagues in the Crown dependencies, we have not received any representations to consider their inclusion in the franchise for any referendum conducted in accordance with this legislation.