Treaty of Lisbon (No. 8) — [8th Allotted Day]

Part of BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE (LISBON TREATY) (No. 7) – in the House of Commons at 1:22 pm on 27 February 2008.

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Photo of Peter Ainsworth Peter Ainsworth Shadow Secretary of State for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 1:22, 27 February 2008

The evidence of these debates has been that the divisions are all on the other side of the House. I agree strongly with my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal.

The hon. Gentleman ought to know that the EU already has a competence in climate change; that is exactly my point. The provisions of the Lisbon treaty are about the distribution of power between the EU and its member states, and how the EU is organised. The treaty has been deliberately designed, some would say, to be as hard as possible to understand, which is presumably why the Government hope that they can renege on their pledge to hold a referendum, although I remind the Secretary of State that people notice when politicians fail to keep their election promises.

However, when the EU does useful things, it can play an important role, not least in tackling climate change. Again, it is about actions and not words:

"if the European Union is to show itself to be useful, it need not reform its institutions or become obsessed with institutional reform; rather, it needs to get on with tackling the big issues that people recognise cannot be addressed at national level."

Those are the words of the Foreign Secretary.