European Union Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, said in a very amusing and eloquent speech that the face of the European Union has changed out of all recognition. He added that all faces change unrecognisably as they get older, but he did not add ““except to those who are behind the face””. Some of the enthusiasts for European integration should look in the mirror when they say that the European Union has not changed at all. Earlier, we had an argument, which bordered on being disagreeable or a little ill tempered, about whether misleading things had been said about the future development of the European Union. I have to confess— I do not intend to pursue this point very long—that I am rather on the side of those who think that there was some misleading about its future development. I seem to remember that, in 1975, Harold Wilson told us that there was no question whatever of monetary union ever arising in the future. As for the phrase ““ever closer union””, of course there will be ever closer co-operation in coming together, travelling and meeting across European boundaries—that is the nature of the modern world and of commerce and travel in Europe today. However, I never interpreted the phrase ““ever closer union of the European peoples”” as meaning the involvement of a supranational authority to such an extent, but perhaps I was wrong in my assumptions and failed to understand. I remember standing in Trafalgar Square and sharing a platform with my noble friend Lord Deben. He and I have entirely different views on the European Union as it has evolved, but at that time we stood on the same platform advocating membership of the Common Market, as it was then. However, because, in a sense, the point is not of such great importance, I am quite prepared to concede that perhaps I failed to understand. Yet if I failed to understand, so did millions of other people in this country. Regardless of whether they should be criticised or told that they are fools for not understanding, the fact is that there is considerable disillusionment with the European Union, not just in this country but throughout Europe. I acknowledge that the noble Lords, Lord Hannay and Lord Kerr, have both admitted that extremely important fact during these debates. As I have said before, it is not because of the Daily Express that the True Finns party has suddenly burst upon our consciousness. There are other reasons for it. First, there is a real problem with governance and democracy within the European Union which relates to the type of indirect democracy that we really operate. Deals are done between Governments; Ministers come back to the House of Commons and announce decisions; decisions can then hardly be modified because they are dependent on other decisions and concessions that have been made and on the horse-trading that has taken place. Secondly, as came out in the exchange with the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, treaties cannot be amended. Treaties are treaties. So the role of Parliament and the great discussion which we have had about Burkean democracy is a bit irrelevant when you have the results of horse-trading in that indirect democracy and when you have the presentation of treaties. Those are two reasons why there is a real problem of governance in the EU. I am pleased to see the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, returning to his seat at this point. The third and most important point is the irreversible nature of the decisions that are made in the EU—not just decisions about competence, but so many decisions about policy as well. They are very difficult to reverse simply because they are arrived at by a process of compromise, a process of agglomerating, of aggregating the decisions and interests of different countries together. If three, four or five years later one country has now got a different view of that issue, it is extremely difficult for the Parliament to reverse that decision because, unless public opinion has changed throughout the European Union, one Parliament alone cannot then change the decision that has been made, because one Government will require either a qualified majority or unanimity in order to reverse the decision. That means that democracy in the European Union—legislation—is often a one-way street. It is very difficult to reverse things. That is the problem with arguments that it might be in our interest to give that qualified majority. It may be in our interest at one time to have qualified majority voting on one issue, but it does not follow that it will be in our interest for all time. That is why the Bill is long overdue. I regard it as almost a constitutional Bill, giving us part of a written constitution. It is actually saying, ““Here are certain areas and we are not going to let them go to Europe. Some of them are more important than others, but they are all important up to a point and we are not going to go beyond these red lines. A future Parliament can change these decisions if it wants to do so, but we are not going to move beyond those red lines at this moment””. The difficulty in reversing European legislation and in making it more flexible needs to be addressed. We are going to have an argument about a sunset clause later, but when did we ever have a sunset clause in any European Union legislation? It is so difficult to bring the rights of the House of Commons to bear on European Union legislation that we have to be very careful about all these areas where power can move away from our country. Once it is gone, it is gone beyond recall.