EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (DEFINITION OF TREATY) ORDER 1973

HL Deb 26 July 1973 vol 344 cc2004-7

2.29 p.m.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (BARONESS TWEEDSM UIR OF BELHELVIE) rose to move, That the Draft European Communities (Definition of Treaty) Order 1973, laid before the House on July 16, 1973, be approved. The noble Baroness said: My Lords, there were extensive debates in the House last year about the mechanism contained in Section 1(3) of the European Communities Act which provides for certain treaties to be specified as "Community Treaties" as defined in that Act. Your Lordships will also recall that the first Order in Council under Section 1(3) was approved after debate on December 14 in this House. Therefore the nature of the mechanism is already known to the House. It might, nevertheless, be useful if I briefly review it again. Under the terms of Section 1(3) of the European Communities Act, any new treaty entered into by the United Kingdom after January 22, 1972, cannot be regarded as a Community treaty as defined in the Act unless it is specified in an Order in Council. The draft of such Orders in Council must be approved by Resolution of both Houses of Parliament. An Order in Council under Section 1(3) of the Act may specify any number of treaties entered into by Her Majesty's Government. As on the occasion of the Order approved last December, it is proposed that the present Order should deal with a number of treaties listed in the Schedule—six in all.

The House will recall that Section 1(4) of the European Communities Act defines the term "treaty" as including: …any international agreement and"— such as in this case— …decisions and exchanges of letters.

Included in the Schedule to the present Order is, first of all, the European Coal and Steel Community's Agreement with Norway. It was signed on May 1, 1973, and the text was laid before Parliament as Cmnd. 5347 in June. It will come into effect on the first day of the second month following notification by the contracting parties that procedures necessary to this end have been completed. The conclusion of the Parliamentary and Privy Council procedures in relation to a proposed Order in Council will enable formal notification to be made by this country.

Two decisions of the representatives of Governments of the Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community, establishing supervision of imports of certain products originating in Austria and Sweden, are included in the Schedule to the Order. They were signed on January 22, 1973, and cover imports during the current year. Texts of the decisions are contained in the Official Journal of the European Communities, Volume 16, No. L59, dated February 5, 1973, which is available to Members of this House.

The last three items on the Schedule relate to exchanges of letters between the head of the United Kingdom delegation to the European Communities and the heads of the Austrian, Swiss and Swedish delegations concerning duty-free quotas of paper products. These exchanges took place on July 22, 1972, with the exception that the acknowledgment from the Swiss delegation was made on August 22, 1972, These exchanges are shown in Cmnd. Papers 5159, 5180 and 5181, which were laid before Parliament in December, 1972. The Draft Order in Council follows the precedent set in December last and, as on that occasion, the terms of Section 1(3). There is no doubt that all six items listed in the Schedule are new treaties within the scope of that section, and therefore I beg to move.

Moved, That the Draft European Communities (Definition of Treaty) Order 1973, laid before the House on July 16, 1973, be approved.—(Baroness Tweedsmuir of Belhelvie.)

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the House will be grateful to the noble Baroness for having explained this Order and for the manner in which she has done so. It is a matter of regret that the Government yesterday were not equally forthcoming, in view of the Statement made in another place in which it was made clear that some £30 million must now be paid across the exchanges because of an E.E.C. Agreement entered into by Her Majesty's Government. I see nothing in the Schedule that I could consent to. It may be that next year we shall have procedures within your Lordships' House and it will be possible to look into these matters in some detail and for a report to be made to the House as to whether they should be looked at more thoroughly than we are doing this afternoon.

We have now been in the European Community for some seven months. I cannot help but reflect on the speeches of the noble Baroness to the effect that we were to offer to Europe political leadership and a strong and sound economy. Since we are now going into Recess for some months, one cannot help but feel—at least from this side of the House—that that political leadership is far from satisfactory. One cannot help but reflect also that when this Government came into office the Stock Exchange Index then stood at close on 500. To-day it is 418—not much sign of confidence by those who invest. Investment in the pound is a subject with which we shall no doubt deal more thoroughly under the Unstarred Question of the noble Lord, Lord Alport. It is a matter of signal regret that the pound to-day is at its lowest ebb. No one, certainly not the noble Baroness, could speak with any confidence about when a firm base will be achieved. We therefore do not appear to be making the contribution that the noble Baroness had in mind when we entered the European Community. This is a matter which no doubt we shall have to debate with a great deal more thoroughness when we have the gracious Speech, unless of course someone higher comes to our aid and we are able to have an Election and sweep the present Government Front Bench from our view.

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, I did not intend to speak twice, but I feel the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, invites me to do so. My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster was perfectly explicit yesterday in his Statement. I understand that there was a little exchange and it was agreed that that Statement should not be repeated here because another place met early in the day and we met in the afternoon. So far as the procedures of the Select Committee are concerned, no doubt the noble Lord, who is a member, will be reporting to the House in due course. As the House will be aware, treaty-making is the prerogative of the Crown rather than that of Parliament. It would be open to such a Committee, if it were established, to scrutinise proposals for decisions or regulations of the Council to bring such treaties into effect.

The noble Lord questioned whether in the seven months of our membership we have given political leadership to the Community and whether we had a sound economy. We had a stirring debate on this subject only this week. We have an underlying growth of over 5 per cent.; and it was expected at the time that there would be certain difficulties of acceding to a Community which had already been in existence for ten years. That does not mean to say that we have not helped to create with our colleagues a sense of community in only seven months. I believe that in the months to come, long before the next Election to which the noble Lord looks forward (I cannot think why, because he is going to lose it) confidence in sterling will be restored.

On Question, Motion agreed to.