§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will state the number of new articles proposed in the material for draft treaties proposed by the Dutch presidency of the European Community; and if he will state the number and scope of new treaties which would be required to implement these draft proposals other than amendments to current treaties;
(2) if he will list the numbers of those articles of the current version of the treaty of Rome which would be amended, replaced, or repealed by the current Dutch texts of draft treaties on economic, monetary and political union.
§ Mr. Garel-JonesThe draft treaty amendments on economic and monetary union circulated by the Netherlands Presidency on 28 October and the draft treaty on the union issued by the Presidency on 8 November comprise a comprehensive account of which articles of the treaty of Rome it is proposed should be amended, replaced, repealed or remain unchanged. In addition, the latter includes a number of new articles relating to the establishment of a European union, as opposed to the European Community. It is intended that all these amendments and new articles should be included in one treaty. Copies of all of these proposals are available in the Library of the House.
If these proposals were retained in any treaty signed by the United Kingdom, then United Kingdom law would need to be amended to ensure that legal provision existed for us to meet our treaty obligations before ratification of the treaty could take place. We anticipate that this legislation will take the form of an amendment to the European Communities Act, 1972, adding to the definition of "the Community Treaties" therein those provisions of the Maastricht agreement which amend the Community treaties.