§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how United Kingdom citizens may obtain copies of the draft report of the Convention on the future of Europe; and what steps he is taking to publicise the document. [79965]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Convention has not produced an overall draft report at this stage. But all the Convention's documents are available to the public on the Convention's Website (http://european-convention.eu.int). This includes Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's preliminary draft constitutional treaty, as well as the final recommendations of those Working Groups that have concluded their work.
§ Keith VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his policy towards qualified majority voting for deciding when national parliaments should be allowed to vote on EU proposals. [79935]
639W
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Convention Working Group on Subsidiarity has proposed the creation of a new mechanism to enable national parliaments to monitor compliance with subsidiarity. The full text is available on the Convention's website (http://european-convention.eu.int).
This Government supports the Working Group's conclusions. We believe that national parliaments should review each new Commission legislative proposal. If a majority of national parliaments judged that a proposal infringed subsidiarity, the Commission should be required to re-examine its approach.