(Extract from Hansard – 15 June, 2005)

Mr. Jimmy Hood (Lanark and Hamilton, East) (Lab): I welcome the opportunity to take part in today's debate. I also welcome the new Minister for Europe to his post, which, I am sure, will be one step in his further promotion in the Government. However, I remind him that he is the eighth or ninth—I have lost count—Minister for Europe since 1997. Some of those Ministers for Europe went up and some of them went down, but, subject to his not receiving too many compliments from my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South-West (Mr. Davidson), I am sure that he will ascend further.

In my brief contribution, I will support the EU, the Government and, in particular, the position that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have taken over the past few weeks. In doing so, I seek to make common cause with other hon. Members on the need for better, more transparent scrutiny of all matters European by this Parliament.

I never thought that I would say this, but I pay tribute to President Chirac, who has done a momentous job in assisting our policy on European matters by irritating  the Foreign Secretary. When I bumped into the Foreign Secretary in the Tea Room last night, I said that I like him more when he is angry. He replied that he is not angry or irritated, but forceful and responsive. Whether he was forceful, responsive, irritated or angry, however, I would welcome more of it in the future.

I wish to comment on how I would prefer Parliament to proceed from where we are to where I think the EU needs to be. The treaty may be as dead as the proverbial dodo, but we need to have processes in the EU that make decision making more transparent and closer to the people. As we have heard today, there were proposals in the draft treaty that did not need treaty changes—for example, the subsidiarity early warning system and the requirement on the Council of Ministers to legislate in public. Since I came into the House this afternoon, I am sure that I heard the Leader of the Opposition support that, and I believe that the shadow Foreign Secretary was supportive as well. I got the impression that he was even supportive of qualified majority voting, which was a boost for those of us who support such progressive changes.

The subsidiarity mechanism gives greater formality to something that Parliaments could already do—that is, send reasonable objections to the Commission, which it can then consider in order to do what it thinks is right. That did not need treaty change, but more formality was required, and that was why it was included in the treaty. The Foreign Secretary has stressed that the subsidiarity mechanism ought to go ahead, and I support him in that.

As for the Council meeting in public when legislating, again, that does not require treaty change, because it was agreed at the 2002 Seville European Council that it could meet in public, and it sometimes does.

I encourage my right hon. Friend to stand his ground, to stay angry and focused, and to deliver transparency and subsidiarity to national Parliaments.

If we are serious about encouraging the European Union to look to the future—and I applaud what the Foreign Secretary is seeking to achieve—let us understand that the best way to lead in Europe is to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, in our own Parliament first.

Angus Robertson: I am grateful to my esteemed Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee over the last Session for giving way on this important point. Does he agree that when walking the walk one important signal to other countries would be to continue the scrutiny process in national Parliaments? Does he think it strange that this House's European Scrutiny Committee has not met for two months and that by the end of this month, more than 100 main items will not have been scrutinised by parliamentarians in the House of Commons but will still go to Brussels for decisions by Ministers in the Council of Ministers? What kind of message does that send out about parliamentary scrutiny in the UK Parliament?

Mr. Hood:   I have long argued for reform in our own procedures for scrutinising all matters European in this House. I must accept that this Government, more than any other before them, have done more to improve our scrutiny procedures in this House, but—this is a good wee phrase that I have heard before—we have done a lot but have a lot more to do. One of the first actions of our Government should have been to set up the Select Committees a lot more quickly. That is very important.

The hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) mentioned some statistics. Since the European Scrutiny Committee met on 6 April, before the general election, 150 EU documents have been deposited in Parliament. The UK presidency begins in a couple of weeks' time, yet we do not have a Committee set up so have been unable even to question our Ministers on what they intend to do and what their priorities will be during their presidency. That is something that the European Scrutiny Committee has done on every previous occasion. There are 150 directives that will either need to have the scrutiny reserve removed from them or delay the business in the European Council. That cannot be a good example for the country that is taking over the presidency to set. I want to make a plea that next time our Parliament is dissolved the scrutiny processes must be in firmly in place as soon as we have a new Parliament back.

Chris Bryant: My hon. Friend is making a very important point. Likewise on the scrutiny issue, when EU legislation is being transposed into British legislation, it often ends up coming in through a statutory instrument, which means that we have only one and a half hours' debate and no opportunity to amend. Does he agree that we need to find some third way between a full Bill and a statutory instrument so that we can have better scrutiny of the transposition process into UK law?

Mr. Hood: I would welcome any such positive proposals. We have long had a debate on how best we scrutinise. Indeed, the Modernisation Committee will soon send the House some proposals that I hope will answer some of these questions. I gave evidence to the Committee and made some proposals that could improve the scrutiny process. I hope that we are able to get some progress as a result of its recommendations.

As I have some time left, I should like to answer the question that was asked of the Foreign Secretary about the European Scrutiny Committee. I have chaired that Committee since it was set up in 1998 under the new rules and procedures. The Committee meets and takes evidence in public and is televised, and we publish reports every fortnight on what we are doing. It does not meet in private. It does the same as every other Select Committee in this House. It deliberates with its legal advisers and special advisers in camera. The Modernisation Committee is proposing to revisit this and to have a trial period on how best to proceed. We should welcome that and consider it, but let us not give the impression to the public that we are discussing European issues in private, because that is not the case. I am sure that we will discuss the Modernisation Committee's proposals when they come to the House, and I look forward to that.