§ Sir Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the document "Corpus Juris" produced by Directorate General XX at the European Commission seminar at San Sebastian; and if he will make a statement. [16980]
§ Mr. MichaelI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) on 28 October 1997,Official Report, column 778.
In this, I explained that the document in question is a discussion paper with no formal status. We disagree with many of its recommendations which are incompatible with the legal traditions of this country. For any of them to have effect, they would need to be proposed formally and agreed unanimously in the Council. An English translation of the document has been placed in the Library.