I pondered on my blog at the weekend whether Baroness Ashton’s appoint as European Commissioner would require her to leave the House of Lords, and whether this might cause the Government to act to allow life peerages to be given up. This is similar to an issue which affects one of our MEPs, Baroness Ludford, because from next year Members of the European Parliament will not be allowed to sit in national parliaments (this came into force for the last European elections, but existing MEPs who were members of the House of Lords were given a free pass).
A well-informed comment on my blog directed me to the excitingly-named statutory instrument SI 2008/1647 – also known as The European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008. These bar MEPs elected from 2009 onwards who are also members of the House of Lords from sitting or voting in the upper house while an MEP.
The slight concern that ministerial regulations can determine who sits in our legislature aside, this is good news for Baroness Ludford. Assuming the European Parliament have agreed that these regulations do the job, Sarah (if re-elected, of course) will be able to continue to sit in the European Parliament and return to the House of Lords when her term of office in Europe ends.
I’ll be interested to see whether the Government makes, or has made, similar regulations for European Commissioners.
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4 Comments
Why do we still pretend that these rules are made up in the UK, either by Parliament or by Ministerial regulation.
The SI states quite clearly in its notes that it is implemented as a result of an European Council decision.
By virtue of Council Decision 2002/772/EC, Euratom (5) (implemented by S.I. 2004/304 and S.I. 2004/1374), the office of member of the European Parliament is incompatible with that of member of a national Parliament.
Sounds exciting, but the truth will be less so.
There are a dozen or so Lords on “Leave of Absence” right now.
http://www.parliament.uk/faq/lords_leave_of_absence.cfm
I suspect she will join that number for a few short months, and that ought to be enough.
Still, it’s touching to see everyone care about the Commissioner’s oath of independence for once…
IanPJ, you’re wrong.
“the office of member of the European Parliament is incompatible with that of member of a national Parliament” is a perfectly correct statement, but that does not oblige the UK to permit a Lord to cease to be a member of a national Parliament; HMG could have chosen to prohibit peers from taking seats in the European Parliament.
“The SI states quite clearly in its notes that it is implemented as a result of an European Council decision.”
The European Council is made up of Ministers from all the member states.