European Union (Amendment) Bill

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 6:32 pm on 21 January 2008.

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Photo of Mike Gapes Mike Gapes Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee 6:32, 21 January 2008

I want to confine my remarks entirely to the foreign affairs aspects of the treaty. In the past day, there has been some media comment on the recommendations and conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Committee's report "Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty". I want to place on the record its main recommendations and conclusions, because many of them have not been adequately aired in all the newspaper and other media coverage of the past 24 hours.

The Select Committee's report is comprehensive and no doubt there will be an opportunity for detailed consideration of it when the Bill goes to Committee. However, I want to place on the record the fact that as a Committee we believe that

"the new institutional arrangements for EU foreign policy created by the Lisbon Treaty have the potential to encourage more coherent and effective foreign policy-making and representation."

That is from paragraph 221. Paragraph 118 states:

"the Common Foreign and Security Policy will remain an intergovernmental area, driven by the Member States. We welcome this."

We also believe that

"the new post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy" is there to enact agreed foreign policy and

"has the potential to give the EU a more streamlined international presence and to contribute to the more coherent development and implementation of external policy."

That comes from paragraph 154.