§ 10.10 p.m.
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, I beg to move that the European Draft Communities (Definition of Treaties) (No. 2) Order 1973, the draft of which was laid before your Lordships' House on December 3 be approved.
My Lords, the House will be familiar with the procedure involved. This is now the third Order in Council of its kind and follows a precedent set in December 1972 and in July this year. The text of all the Agreements specified in the Schedule to the Order are available to the House either as Command Papers or in the Official Journal of the European Communities. I think the purpose of the Agreements listed in the Schedule will be clear to your Lordships from this text, but perhaps I should briefly draw attention to certain aspects of them. The first item listed provides for the opening of tariff preferences for products covered by the European Coal and Steel Community originating in Norway. Items Nos. 2 and 7 in the Schedule are exchanges of letters between representatives of Her Majesty's Government and of the Norwegian authorities and the Finnish authorities, and relates to the Agreement between the two countries and the E.E.C. They contain undertakings governing the opening of duty free quotas for imports of paper products over the period 1974 to 1983 inclusive. Items 3 and 4 in the Schedule are inter-related. Item No. 3, the protocol of May 1973 to the Agreement on Trade and Technical Co-operation between the European Community and member States and the Republic of Lebanon, provides for the United Kingdom, together with Ireland and Denmark, to become contracting parties to the agreement itself.
177 My Lords, Item No. 4 in the Schedule is an Agreement the effect of which is to renew the European Community/Lebanon Agreement until June 30, 1974. Neither of these items can enter Community affairs until the parties to them have notified that they have completed the national procedures necessary. The making of the present Order in Council will enable the United Kingdom to notify to that effect. Item 5 in the Schedule relates to one particular aspect of the establishment of the European Monetary Co-operation Fund, namely, its provisional location in Luxembourg. The part of the Instrument establishing the E.M.C.F. is a Council regulation, but the question of the location of the Fund could not be dealt with in this regulation because under the terms of Article 216 of the E.E.C. Treaty, decisions on the setting up of Community institutions must be adopted by common accord of the member States.
My Lords, lastly I come to Item 6 in the Schedule. This is the E.C.S.C. Agreement with Finland, which parallels the main Agreement between Finland and the E.E.C. The E.E.C. Agreement is already a Community Treaty within the meaning of the European Communities Act, but the E.C.S.C. Agreement was also signed by the member States. Therefore, under Section 1(3) of the Act this Order in Council is required to give the Agreement the same status. As I have said, the draft Order is in accordance with precedents. All seven items listed in the Schedule are new treaties within the scope of Section 1(3) of the Act. I recommend that this Order be approved and beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Draft European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (No. 2) Order 1973, laid before the House on December 3, be approved.—(Baroness Tweedsmuir of Belhelvie.)
§ LORD HOYMy Lords, we are most grateful to the noble Baroness. It would be less than courteous not to acknowledge the explanation she has given us at this 178 late hour. It is helpful when noble Lords have explained to them the meaning of all these Orders. I think the noble Baroness has done it exceedingly well to-night, and we are most grateful to her. We shall not object to the passing of this Order.