EU (Subsidiarity) (Hansard, 12 May 1998)

§ 12. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)
If he will make a statement on progress in respect of subsidiarity within the European Union. [40502]

§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Robin Cook)
Since Maastricht, subsidiarity has been important in ensuring that the Community acts only where results can be achieved better by action at European level. The subsidiarity protocol of the Amsterdam treaty, for the first time, sets out in the treaty the procedures that should be used in applying the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality to European Union legislation.

§ Mr. Bercow
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware from his close reading of the text that the subsidiarity protocol of the Amsterdam treaty requires the maintenance, in full, of the acquis communautaire and the institutional balance? Given that he has accepted that pitiful state of affairs, does he expect a single European Union power to be repatriated to the United Kingdom in the lifetime of this Parliament, or has he thrown in the towel and once again let down the people of Britain?

§ Mr. Cook
I am aware that those words are in the protocol. They are in the protocol because they are the words that the Conservative Government accepted at Maastricht. For once, the hon. Gentleman is unfair to the previous Administration. As a result of the negotiations at Maastricht, 12 different regulations were dropped and fewer regulations have been introduced in every year since then. It would have been nice if the Conservative party when in government had applied subsidiarity in practice. It is this Government who are now implementing subsidiarity, not just between us and Brussels, but between London, Whitehall and Scotland, London and Wales, and London and the rest of Britain.

§ Mr. Bercow
On a point of order, Madam Speaker.

§ Madam Speaker
I do not take points of order during questions. If the hon. Gentleman wants an Adjournment debate, he should know how to deal with that.

§ Mr. Bill Rammell (Harlow)
Does the Secretary of State agree that the Amsterdam treaty specifically enshrines the principle of subsidiarity for the first time, and forces on the European Commission a duty to consult widely and to justify action at a European as opposed to a national level? We need such progress in Europe, rather than the incessant criticism that we get from the Conservative party, which makes none of those points and constantly attempts to obscure the truth.

§ Mr. Cook
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The protocol makes it clear that for Community legislation now to be proposed, it must be shown that matters can be achieved better at Community level than at national level. It must also be shown that such legislation will produce clear benefits that could not be secured at national level. That is now written into the treaty for the first time. It is something that the Conservative Government did not achieve at Maastricht, and it is a clear advance for the principle of subsidiarity.

§ Mr. Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe)
Will the Foreign Secretary reconsider his answer to my hon. 148 Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) about whether the preservation of the acquis was in the Maastricht treaty as opposed to the Amsterdam treaty? Does he accept that his answer to my hon. Friend was entirely incorrect? I fear that that is another example of the right hon. Gentleman not reading the material that is put before him.

§ Mr. Cook
I am happy to tell the right hon. and learned Gentleman that what I said was entirely consistent with what I was told two hours ago. Conservative Members complain that we are not briefed, and then they complain when we are briefed. Those are, indeed, the words that were accepted by the previous Government at Maastricht, so it is a bit rich for the right hon. and learned Gentleman to complain to us now.