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Monday, November 10, 2014

Are MPs actually being given a vote on the European Arrest Warrant?

Today it is widely reported that MPs will vote on the Government's plans to opt back into the European Arrest Warrant. In fact reading the Home Secretary in the Sunday Telegraph you would think that she believed that as well.

However a close reading of the actual motion leaves her contention in some doubt. Here it is:
Secretary Theresa May That the draft Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014, which were laid before this House on 3 November, be approved.

Well the Government's Explanatory memo  to the regulations mentions only 11 out of the 35 measures the Government proposes to opt into actually require legislation - the warrant not being one of them.

This will undoubtedly be brought up in the debate and why exactly it has been omitted is unclear (perhaps because motions on legislation are unamendable). However, many MPs will argue that it contradicts assurances given to them over a long period and sets a bad precedent.

6 comments:

Rollo said...

An appalling gift of our independence and our Legal system to the Napoleonic code, which we will live to regret if these traitors give it away. What happened to the promise that there would be a referendum before any more powers were ceded to Brussels?

martin rowe said...

What on earth is going on? Could, and would, our politicians please be more honest with us? Otherwise, they will find that we have ALL voted UKIP next May! I am utterly fed up with being treated as a child, and largely by politicians who have never succeeded in a "proper job" - like the Prime Minister, his Deputy, and the Leader of the Opposition, and in all likelihood the vast majority of members of the House of Commons as well.

Allyg said...

Smoke screens and mirrors are the only methods known to the Eurocraps....
We've just told all you voting thickies we've halved the E.U. demand for 1.6 billion pounds. Like hell you have.
Snouts in the trough and getting fatter by the minute.
UKIP will decimate the status quo.

Denis Cooper said...

So on top of all the deliberate obfuscation over the demand for extra money for the EU budget we now have this confusion ...

On quite a few occasions over recent months I've asked different people:

a) whether there was any legal necessity for MPs to approve the opting back into these measures, including the EU Arrest Warrant, or it was more in the nature of a courtesy that the government would allow a vote; and

b) whether it would be a single vote on the whole package or there would be separate votes, in particular a separate vote on the EU Arrest Warrant;

But I've never got any reply from anybody I've asked, including several MPs.

Now it seems clear that the answer to b) is that it will be a single vote on the whole package, while with respect to a) that vote is not legally necessary for some of the measures in the package; in particular the Arrest Warrant, where the UK legislation for its implementation is already in place and does not need to be confirmed or repeated.

At least I think that is what it means; but how can one be sure that one has correctly discerned the truth through the thick smoke screen deliberately generated by the government?

Rik said...

Cameron simply keeps sending the wrong signals to his potential electorate.
(Mass)Communication on this was again very poor. A letter by May in the Telegraph is in no way enough to communicate why EAW is useful. Even less why the UK should basically permanently sign up to it. Plus how it relates with getting powers back.

R Davis said...

Jean-Claud Juncker's most outrageous political quote.
Jean-Claud Juncker President of EU Commission: "when it becomes serious, you have to lie."
On introduction of the euro: "We decide something, leave it lying around, & wait & see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because no one understands what has been decided we continue on step by step until there is no turning back."
On eurozone economic policy & democracy: "We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected when we've done it."
The Telegraph 15 July 2014.
This man & his buddies are little more than opportunists criminals, on yet another self-serve rampage.
Mental Health & Criminal Psychology & the humble straight jacket have a massive role to play here.