HC 458 - UK Government's renegotiation of EU membership: Parliamentary sovereignty and scrutiny

Book excerpt: By the end of 2017, the UK electorate will be invited to decide whether the UK should remain a member of the EU or leave the EU. Before inviting the electorate to make its choice, the Government is renegotiating the terms of the UK's EU membership. A process as critical as this should be subject to the most careful scrutiny. Yet we have found the Government's approach to Parliament during the renegotiation so far to be reactive and opaque. The onus has been placed on Parliament to guess when to request information and evidence from the Government and others. We regret this approach on a topic of such national importance. Dialogue between the Government and Parliament needs to improve substantially after the December European Council. Under Standing Orders, much of our work involves evaluating EU proposals for legal and political importance. In a similar way, we have assessed each of the Government's four areas of renegotiation against its own criteria. We conclude that the negotiation priorities as set out by the Prime Minister will not deliver the legally binding and irreversible agreement leading to reform of the EU nor a fundamental change in the UK's relationship with it envisaged by him. Given that no Treaty amendments will be made before the referendum, voters are entitled to know the extent to which subsequent Treaty amendment will be required to deliver any new agreement, and how robust and meaningful any guarantees or promises in this respect may be. The Government envisages immediate delivery of the renegotiation outcome by means of an international agreement. It should be clear to the voters that any such agreement would be consistent with the existing EU Treaties only insofar as it is limited to interpreting or supplementing them. It cannot substantively alter the EU Treaties.