My Lords, as my noble friend Lord Monks said, we in Parliament appear at the moment to be mere spectators, highly dependent on the Government to negotiate on our behalf—indeed, on behalf of future generations—an agreement with the EU as to how we withdraw from nearly half a century of membership and, more seriously, how we work with and alongside the EU in the decades to come: the canvas, or the mandate, in the words of my noble friend Lord Lea.
It is to this latter task that Amendment 144 and its amendments draw our attention. At the moment, the Government are telling us nothing as to the shape of the agreement they wish to reach. “Deep”? “Bespoke”? Those words tell us nothing. What does it mean in regard to family law; our highly profitable creative industries; the protection of consumers, especially in food safety or transport—those trains, planes and ships that carry people and goods from here to there every hour of the day? How does it affect our artistic, sporting and other professionals, who are currently able to work across the EU, representing British companies or citizens, competing, performing or conducting architectural, veterinary or scientific work across that enormous market, or undertaking accounting or auditing work for multinationals? Indeed, a whole range of jobs are currently undertaken day by day by virtue of the IP agreements, broadcasting licensing or the mutual recognition of qualifications, which my noble friend Lord Brooke set out so clearly. Negotiations are needed on those areas.
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Britain, as everyone has emphasised, is a country of talent. People with that talent tend to fly in and out of other countries to ply their skills. My noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith arrived early this morning from plying his skills elsewhere. That is how our professionals work. But they can do that only if the recognition is there. Within the EU it can happen by automatic recognition for professions with harmonised minimum training conditions—the nurses and doctors we have already heard about, dentists, pharmacists, architects and vets, albeit that they may have to register elsewhere. There is a general system for some, such as lawyers, auditors, insurance intermediaries and translators; or recognition by virtue of professional experience, for example for carpenters and beauticians; or the A1 system, if I heard it correctly, for artists.
In addition, there is the fly in, fly out route. For architects working on projects in other EU countries, in Berlin or elsewhere, or for lawyers representing our British clients, this ability is essential—as indeed it is, as we have heard, for a combination of racehorses, models, opera singers, pop stars, sports specialists, designers or even film crews. Understandably, organisations
representing all those groups have been in touch imploring us to press the Government to raise the issue of reciprocity and recognition higher up their priorities, as they fear otherwise a loss of business in just one year’s time. It is why, like the other issues requiring reciprocity from our partners—whether in family law or in sports, emphasised by our Olympians, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, or the creative industries or broadcasting, which would have been emphasised had he not been ill by my noble friend Lord Puttnam—these amendments seek to insert these elements into the Government’s negotiating aims.
Equally crucial but less well recognised by the Government is the need to negotiate consumer rights, whether over goods and services purchased or the food we eat, as set out so clearly by my noble friends Lady Crawley and Lord Rooker, who knows a thing or two about food safety—even, as we heard, about honey.
There are two aspects to the amendment moved by my noble friend Lord Monks. One is to stress the breadth and importance of what is being negotiated, but the other fundamental aspect is to require the negotiating mandate—the “asks” which are to be put in the hands of our representatives to the EU—to be approved by Parliament, not just by “fumbling” Ministers, as my noble friend called them, or “amateurs” in the words of my noble friend Lord Rooker. Rather more politely, the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, just said that Ministers perhaps need some help.
The importance of this is clear. It is our country’s future that these Ministers are negotiating. We need to see the objectives that they have set for themselves. These objectives will determine the sort of country we will be. They will determine our trading, security, legal, environmental and financial arrangements with the continent. This is too important to be left to a secret document. We want to see the path down which the Government seek to lead us.