Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance

Part of Financial Institutions (Reform) – in the House of Commons at 2:49 pm on 29 February 2012.

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Photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg Jacob Rees-Mogg Conservative, North East Somerset 2:49, 29 February 2012

Indeed, but one never knows what people might say in relation to the European Union.

As I was saying, it is a shocking state of affairs that our partners in Europe should want to proceed with a treaty without even bothering to go through the proper forms to ensure that that treaty is lawful under EU law. They have not even asked the question. It may be that they know what the answer will be, but if they do, they are one up on most Members of Parliament.

The other point raised in Sir Jon Cunliffe’s letter is that

“we must reserve our position on the proposed treaty and its use of the institutions”.

This, again, is very important because what we are trying to find out is whether the Government are reserving their position on the current legality of the treaty, or how the treaty will be used in practice. If it is the former—if the Government are concerned about the current legality of the treaty—it is important that they act now to establish their concern and to have a judgment from the European Court of Justice, rather than waiting. If the Government wait, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stone said earlier, he who is silent is seen to consent, and we will find that we have allowed the treaty to be implemented and we will have lost our ability to have recourse.