British Parliament Controls EU Legislation Not
Phillip Johnston Home Affairs Editor of the Telegraph has an article in Mondays edition on how measures of constitutional significance are handled in the British Parliament. One might wonder exactly what Mr Johnston has been doing with his time if he has only just realised the impact our membership of the EU and the way we handle its legislation in our own parliament has undermined the basic controls the MPs we elect can exert on the Government, and has freed the Executive of any accountability to Parliament, thus allowing a minister to agree to something in the EU forum which must be passed into British Law without any debate in either houses of Parliament.
Mr Johnston tells us that he is surprised to find that the only control our Parliament has over EU legislation comes from the European scrutiny committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and the only weapon those committees have in their armoury to stop the executive simply agreeing to anything in this country’s name is something known as a scrutiny reserve. The theory being when they are unhappy with a proposal they can require it to be debated in Parliament, even then not in the full parliament but usually in a committee. Once they have issued a scrutiny reserve the proposed directive cannot be agreed by a minister at the European Council until the reserve is lifted.
The theory in this instance Mr Johnston mentions has not worked because the House of Commons European scrutiny committee placed a scrutiny reserve on a new EU scheme under which prisoners would be transferred, without their consent, to their country of origin, and wrote to Joan Ryan, the Home Office minister responsible for European matters expressing their concern. However when the opportunity arose of a quick deal at the EU justice and home affairs council the scrutiny reserve was simply ignored and
This rather puts the argument I have been having on another forum about the power of the British Parliament into perspective. The contention is one which is often promulgated by Europhiles “Anything that is agreed in the EU (by the national government themselves) must be ratified by the national parliament,” and the very idea that “the British parliament is powerless is just another conspiracy theory” This needless to say is a an inversion of the truth as the only time our Parliament has the power of veto is on treaty change, this is the time when Primary legislation is agreed which gives the EU authority to pass secondary legislation. But once that treaty is agreed, usually on a three line whip which forces the troops into line, there is only the European scrutiny committee and their scrutiny reserve to prevent a government minister signing up to any extension in a given area.
According to an Open Europe report “the Government makes a mockery of this system by its heavy use of a loophole which allows it to “override” the scrutiny reserve. Since figures were first collected in 2001 the “override” has been used 346 times – i.e. to pass 346 pieces of key EU legislation without proper scrutiny in Parliament. 2005 saw one of the greatest ever uses of the override.
While in the past the Government has claimed that the timing of legislation by other member states has made it necessary to use the override to avoid undue delay in the Council, this argument has been undermined by the Government’s extensive use of the override during its own presidency of the EU – when it itself controlled the timing of meetings and decisions. The Government used the override 22 times during its own EU Presidency in the second half of 2005.” – when it itself controlled the timing of meetings and decisions. The Government used the override 22 times during its own EU Presidency in the second half of 2005.”
Helen at Eureferndum also posts on this subject with perhaps more insight !
Technorati Tags: European scrutiny committees, scrutiny reserve, European arrest warrant, European Defence Agency.
