Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:00 pm on 12 May 2008.
The noble Baroness says that in the treaty there is the opportunity to get powers returned, but that has been the position since 1992, when John Major was Prime Minister and negotiated the subsidiarity clause. He came back to this country and declared, "Game, set and match", because he had got that introduced into the Maastricht treaty. Since then, no powers or competences have been returned to this country at all, as the noble Baroness has just confirmed.