HL Deb 29 June 1993 vol 547 cc26-7WA
Lord Tebbit

asked Her Majesty's Government:

To list those matters where the comprehensive nature of the Treaty on European Union's requirements for the Community to adopt a common policy prevents actions within the ambit of that policy by member states.

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Mackay of Clashfern)

refer my noble friend to my answer to an oral Question by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 17th June (Official Report col. 1662). The treaty to whose requirements I referred was not the Treaty on European Union but the Treaty of Rome as amended, which is the treaty referred to in Article 3b on subsidiarity. Apart from the example I gave of the Common Agricultural Policy, it is generally accepted that the Common Commercial Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy (so far as conservation is concerned) and the Common External Tariff are areas where the comprehensive nature of the treaty's requirements for the Community to adopt a common policy prevents action within the ambit of that policy by member states.

Lord Tebbit

asked Her Majesty's Government:

To list those matters where the comprehensive nature of the Treaty on European Union's requirements for the Community to adopt a common policy does not prevent actions within the ambit of that policy by member states.

The Lord Chancellor

If the treaty requirement for a common policy is comprehensive, as in the areas I have specified in my previous Answer today to my noble friend, then by definition it prevents action within the ambit of that policy by member states. Conversely, if the requirement is not comprehensive it does not prevent action by member states.

Lord Tebbit

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the responsibilities of any government department are entirely without the area of matters in which the comprehensive nature of the treaty on European requirements for the Community to adopt a common policy prevents actions within the ambit of that policy by member states.

The Lord Chancellor

The departments of central government which are principally concerned with the common policies which I have specified in my previous Answer today to my noble friend are the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Scottish Office, the Welsh Office, the Northern Ireland Office, HM Customs and Excise and the Department of Trade and Industry, but, since all departments deal to a greater or lesser extent with matters of Community law and practice, the responsibilities of any department may be affected by those policies.