§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the statement by Baroness Scotland of Asthal on 6 February (H.L. Deb., col. 1047) that the final version of the Nice Treaty is to be signed in Nice on 26 February: (a) what is the present legal status of the documents signed at the Inter-Governmental Conference in Nice in December 2000; (b) what are the differences between those documents and the documents to be signed on 26 February; (c) how were any changes between the two agreed; and (d) what would be the effect of the United Kingdom withholding its signature on 26 February. [HL721]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal)Document SN 1247/1/01 REV1 contains the text of the Treaty of Nice in its definitive form. That text was signed in Nice on 26 February and is available in the Libraries of both Houses.
Following the Nice European Council, minor changes were made to the draft treaty at the meetings of the Permanent Representatives Committee on 20 and 21 December. These addressed inconsistencies in the text and between language versions and provided legal clarification of the decisions taken. The text was then finalised from a technical and linguistic point of view by the lawyer-linguists of the Council in conjunction with lawyers from the member states.
For the Treaty of Nice to enter into force it must be signed and ratified by all the member states. Therefore if the UK had not signed and did not go on to ratify the treaty it could not enter into force. The Government did not withhold their signature and will introduce legislation to enable them to ratify the treaty.