HC Deb 19 January 1998 vol 304 c429W
Sir Richard Body

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if paragraph 3 of the Subsidiary Protocol of the Treaty of Amsterdam permits the repatriation of acquis communautaire. [22615]

Mr. Doug Henderson

The Maastricht Treaty introduced as an objective of the European Union "to maintain in full the acquis communautaire" (Article B). The acquis communautaire is not an immutable body of law. Community agreements and legislation may be repealed or become obsolete. In the past the Commission has withdrawn legislative proposals on subsidiarity grounds. This option is made explicit in the Subsidiarity Protocol of the Treaty of Amsterdam, paragraph 3 of which states that subsidiarityallows Community action within the limits of its powers to be expanded where circumstances so require, and conversely, to be restricted or discontinued where it is no longer justified".

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