argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): If there is one thing that does not change, it is the nature of the hon. Gentleman’s interventions on this subject. The Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Business Secretary and I have spoken frequently on the agenda on competitiveness, and I would be happy to send the hon. Gentleman a sheaf of speeches if he would like me to. Broadly, this is about three things. It is about cutting the cost of unnecessary red tape and regulation on all businesses, particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises. It is about deepening the single market, particularly in digital and in services, where it is underdeveloped at the moment. And it is about forging ambitious new trade agreements with other countries and other regions of the world, for their benefit and ours. These are the opportunities that British business has urged us to take, and this Government are determined not to follow but to lead on these matters in the European debate.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Peter Lilley (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend avoid using up his limited bargaining power to obtain purely symbolic changes such as removing the words "ever closer union", given that they have never been invoked by the European Court against Britain or used to require any other member state to move in an integrationist direction? They have even been dropped from the constitutional treaty. Will he instead focus on getting back any powers that are not required to run a common trading area, so that we in this Parliament can make more of our own laws and hold our lawmakers to account?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has always said that he is seeking a deal on reform that is substantive. That will be challenging to negotiate, and I do not want any Member to think that these reforms will somehow fall easily into our lap. There will be some tough negotiations ahead The importance of the words on "ever closer union" is that they encapsulate the fact that the EU at the moment is insufficiently flexible, still thinking of a single destination on integration for all its member states. As the Prime Minister said in his speech this morning, we need to see a much greater acceptance of the diversity of Europe at the moment. We need to see a readiness to live and let live, accepting that some countries will want to integrate more closely but others will wish to stand apart from that and that the decisions of each group should be properly respected.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Obviously, as Parliament is sovereign, not least in the fact that EU law has direct effect in the UK only because of Acts of Parliament—decisions of this House—the irreversibility of any decision any Government take on anything is limited. To answer the hon. Gentleman’s question, we are keen to avoid a repeat of the sort of thing that happened over the European financial stabilisation mechanism earlier this year, when, in the heat of a crisis in the eurozone, a deal that had been solemnly agreed by all 28 member states in December 2010 suddenly appeared to be at risk and came up for discussion in a meeting where only 19 member Governments were gathered together. That is not the way in which we can do business in Europe in the future.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend must know that this is pretty thin gruel—it is much less than people had come to expect from the Government. It takes out a few words from the preamble but does nothing about the substance of the treaties; it deals with competition, for which the European Commission itself has a proposal; and it fails to restore control of our borders. It seems to me that its whole aim is to make Harold Wilson’s renegotiation look respectable. It needs to do more; it needs to have a full list of powers that will be restored to the United Kingdom and to this Parliament, not vacuously to Parliaments plural.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The problem with the idea of a unilateral national parliamentary veto, which my hon. Friend advocates, is that it would mean that, for example, the most protectionist Parliament in any one member state could veto every deregulatory and every single market measure that the United Kingdom believed was profoundly in the interests of our people and our prosperity. Such a unilateral veto would be incompatible even with the arrangements that Norway and Switzerland have with the European Union. I just say to him that if he had had the privilege and responsibility of sitting at Council of Ministers meetings in Brussels, a responsibility that he may well indeed enjoy at some future stage of his career, he would be less sanguine about what he terms the unambitious nature of what we are proposing. What we are proposing is going to require some very tough negotiating indeed.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): That will be a question for those who are campaigning for out to make clear when the referendum comes. A number of studies have been published on what various options for British engagement with Europe would look like. As for the Government, we are relentlessly focused on securing a successful outcome to this negotiation and delivering the reformed Europe that the British people want.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew Tyrie (Conservative, Centre-right): Removing the commitment to "ever closer union" will be nothing more than a rhetorical gesture unless it is backed by a radical shake-up of the way the EU takes its decisions. Does the Minister agree that most EU legislation is stitched up between the Commission, the European Parliament and member states behind closed doors, in the impenetrable process known as "trilogue", and is currently acting as an integrationist ratchet? What specific proposals do the Government have for halting and reversing that ratchet?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in his speech this morning, we certainly think we need a new mechanism in the EU’s system for working that guards against that ratchet and provides for the opportunity to review and reallocate powers that do not need to be exercised at a European level. The pamphlet recently published by my hon. Friend provides some constructive and imaginative suggestions as to how we might take that forward.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I heard what Mr Froman said. Obviously, he is a senior official in the current US Administration, so one has to take what he says seriously. On the general point the hon. Lady makes, we see further moves forward in free trade deals as an important element in securing the reformed European Union that we want. The potential deal with the US is the most ambitious and most far reaching in its consequences of any of those, but I welcome the fact that the Commission’s trade strategy is also talking about forging new trade deals with some of the emerging economies and also with our good allies and partners in Australia and New Zealand.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Government Operations
James Gerald Douglas Howarth (Conservative, Centre-right): In this year, as we mark the 750th anniversary of the first English Parliament—some of our continental partners are rather newcomers to this concept—may I suggest to my right hon. Friend that unless we return powers to this Parliament, this exercise will not be worth while, for it is in this Parliament that authority ultimately should reside, on behalf of the British people? Can he therefore explain to us how on earth this new arrangement, whereby groups of national Parliaments acting together can stop unwanted legislative proposals, is going to work?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I share my hon. Friend’s love of English history, but I caution him against seeing Simon de Montfort as a true-born Englishman. The direct answer to his question is that the treaties already provide for a mechanism whereby a group of national Parliaments can demand and secure a review by the Commission of a measure the Commission is bringing forward. We think one option we should be looking at is turning such an arrangement above a certain threshold into an outright veto—a red card rather than a yellow card.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Clearly, when the negotiations are over the Government will make their assessment and their recommendation clear, setting out in detail their reasons for coming to that view, including their assessment of what alternative options there might be and the Government’s view on those. I do not think therefore that the hon. Gentleman has anything to fear. Our focus remains on a successful outcome to these negotiations, which we believe will deliver a reformed Europe—that is what the British people want to see.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with my hon. Friend. If we look back at the European Union’s history, we can take pride in the fact that two of its greatest achievements—building a single market across Europe and enlarging the European Union to embrace the new democracies of eastern and central Europe—were very much brought about by British leadership and, in particular, by the personal drive of Margaret Thatcher. What he says is important and the Government very much share the spirit in which he posed his question.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): After all the statements made by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Europe, the Foreign Secretary, and the former Foreign Secretary about being in Europe and not being run by Europe, and after all the pledges to restore the primacy of national Parliaments and to get an opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights to restore our borders, is that it? Is that the sum total of the Government’s position in this renegotiation? Is not the onus on those who advocate that we should stay in the European Union to explain why we should put up with being a second-tier country in an increasingly centralised European Union, paying more and more, and losing more and more control?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is right, and it is one reason why I regard it as an important responsibility on my part to keep in very close contact with what the three devolved Administrations—in this case the Northern Ireland Executive—are thinking. At the moment, there are no signs that the flow of foreign direct investment is drying up. In fact it is still the case that the United Kingdom gets a bigger share of third country direct investment into the European Union than any other member state.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Ian Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): Given that my right hon. Friend has conceded that several elements of the Prime Minister’s letter will require treaty change, will he tell the House what is his best estimate of the length of time that that change will take, even if it were miraculously to be immediately agreed?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not blame my right hon. Friend for asking what is a legitimate question, but that is something that we will be talking about in the context of the negotiations. Clearly, it is true—this is what I think lays behind his question—that each member state will have its own constitutional arrangements for ratifying any new treaty.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The Prime Minister will make his position clear at the end of the negotiations. It would seem slightly odd to embark on a process of negotiations and declare at the beginning what the outcome was going to be.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Law and Crime
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We are seeking a situation in which we have tougher rules against the abuse of freedom of movement by criminals, fraudsters and others. We also want to reduce significantly the pull factor that our welfare system provides at present.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Agriculture
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I think that we have demonstrated, through our actions as well as our words, our support for the UK fishing community. I am talking about the reform of the common fisheries policy that British Ministers helped to secure last year. That has led to a ban on the practice of discarding, which is something that British Governments of all colours have been trying to achieve for decades, and a shift towards more local and regional management of fisheries than was the case in the past.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I do not, on two counts. First, my hon. Friend understates the significance of the reforms that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has proposed. Secondly, this is a matter in the end for the British people, not me, the Prime Minister or any other Member of the House, and if they decide to stay in a reformed European Union, the responsibility of this and any future British Government will be not to be passive but to lead the debate within Europe and secure outcomes that benefit the security and prosperity of the British people.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The last time I talked to Scottish Ministers about their proposals, they were very keen on measures to deepen the single market in services and digital, which would provide major benefits to Scotland, and to take forward new free trade deals with countries around the world. I remind the hon. Gentleman that greater access to foreign markets for the Scotch whisky industry is something that the United Kingdom Government consistently put at the forefront of our own input into the Brussels discussions.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown (Conservative, Centre-right): If the result of the EU referendum is to be enduring, it must not be on the basis of a false prospectus. Will my right hon. Friend therefore give us an assurance that any changes that are agreed will be properly legally binding and not subject to a fudge when the referendum is over?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The Prime Minister has made it very clear that we need to have outcomes that make sure that whatever package of reforms can be achieved, assuming that the negotiations are successful, they are legally binding and irreversible, for exactly the reasons that my hon. Friend gives.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We need to have the European Referendum Bill on the statute book and to have concluded the European negotiations. When both those criteria have been fulfilled, we need to allow time for secondary legislation that appoints a specific date to go through both Houses of Parliament, and after that we need to allow for a campaign period of a minimum of 10 weeks.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Macroeconomics
Mark Andrew Pritchard (Conservative, Centre-right): Europe’s economies will eventually return to growth, so is it not in the national interest of our continental European partners to support the Prime Minister in seeking to reduce in-work benefits and in turn to reduce the brain-drain out of Europe?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Henry Edward Millar Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I will be proud to walk through the Division Lobby in support of the Government’s European Union Referendum Bill. Does my right hon. Friend think that most of the Opposition parties completely lack credibility, first, because they fought the right of the British people to have a say on our EU membership, and secondly because they now seem to be fighting the concept of reform?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right. Some Opposition Members grossly underestimate the sense of resentment among many men and women in this country at having seen treaty after treaty go through, changing the balance of powers in Europe, with the British people never being asked to have their say.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The entire Government were elected on a manifesto of renegotiation, reform and referendum. I enjoyed the joke, but Christopher Columbus is remembered for his achievement in navigation and discovery and for symbolising the opening of a new age. I hope that this renegotiation is the start of a new age of greater flexibility, democracy and competitiveness for Europe.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): In many cases involving trade and the single market, the European Court of Justice has produced judgments that have been very much to the advantage of British interests. It is true that if there is a single market, some kind of independent judicial arbiter is needed to settle disputes. My hon. Friend will need to contain his understandable impatience a little longer. My right hon. Friend the Justice Secretary intends in due course to announce details of the way forward on replacing the Bill of Rights and the implications of that policy.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): For five and a half years now I have had the pleasure of vigorous and sometimes robust discussions with my right hon. and hon. Friends, as well as with Opposition Members. There are passionately and honourably held differences of view across the House in all parties about the United Kingdom’s relationship with Europe. I hope we can continue to take this debate forward in a spirit of mutual respect for people whose views may differ from our own.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Daniel Double (Conservative, Centre-right): The debate on whether the British people should vote to remain in or leave the EU has been characterised by some in terms of the certainty of remaining against the uncertainty of leaving, but does my right hon. Friend agree that with the current uncertain situation in Europe, particularly on the eurozone and the impact of the migrant crisis, voting to remain is as much a leap in the dark as voting to leave?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Macroeconomics
James Roger Cartlidge (Conservative, Centre-right): Part 1 of the letter on economic governance states: "There are today effectively two sorts of members of the European Union"— those in the euro and those outside. Does my right hon. Friend agree that many of the countries currently outside the euro other than ourselves are likely to remain in that position for many, many years to come, and that therefore it is in the wider interests of the whole EU that the European Union accepts that reality and enters into our negotiations on this point with an understanding of that fact?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Despite the challenges ahead, I remain confident of a successful outcome to these negotiations and of joining enthusiastically with my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in favour of continued British membership of a reformed European Union on the basis that my right hon. Friend set out in his speech this morning.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
Craig Mackinlay (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement to the House today. I am pleased to see that "rule nothing out" still features large in everything that is said and heard. What vexes me, and I am sure many right hon. and hon. Members, is the best way to achieve that deal and the aims that he has advanced today, which are both welcome and laudable—free trade, immigration and benefits control, sovereignty of Parliament, independent economic governance and the removal of ever closer union. Does he agree that the best way to achieve these aims is very simple—that is, to vote to leave?
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I agree rather with the Prime Minister when he said that we would get the best of both worlds by continued membership of a reformed European Union which provided us with amplified power for our own economic and security objectives for international work, but which was also a Europe more committed in the future than now to democratic accountability, to acceptance of its own diversity and to economic competitiveness.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We have a very close relationship with Ireland and it is true that the reconciliation in Northern Ireland has in part been brought about in the context of the fact that the United Kingdom and Ireland have worked very closely together as partners within the European Union. We will certainly be listening to all our friends across Europe, as well as to the views of leaders in Northern Ireland, but at the end of the day this is a matter for the people of the United Kingdom to decide, just as the Irish people have voted many times on whether or not to accept new European Union treaties.
Europe: Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2015-11-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
Christopher Heaton-Harris (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for making the statement, and I commend him on the way he goes about making statements and engages with the House. I very much welcome the evolution of the themes and policies in the statement. My constituents will probably make up their mind based on two things—whether we can control our own borders, and the ability to trade widely with the world. With the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership bogged down in a politically correct quagmire in the European Union, what is my right hon. Friend’s assessment of the ability of the European Union to conclude future free trade deals?