European Union (Amendment) Act 2008

6 Parliamentary control of decisions E+W+S+N.I.

(1) A Minister of the Crown may not vote in favour of or otherwise support a decision under any of the following unless Parliamentary approval has been given in accordance with this section—

(a) Article 48(6) of the Treaty on European Union (simplified revision procedure),

(b) Article 48(7) of that Treaty (adopting qualified majority voting or applying ordinary legislative procedure: general),

(c) the provision of Article 31(3) of that Treaty (Common and Foreign Security Policy) that permits the adoption of qualified majority voting,

(d) the provision of Article 81(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (family law) that permits the application of ordinary legislative procedure in place of special legislative procedure,

(e) the provision of Article 153(2) of that Treaty (social policy) that permits the application of ordinary legislative procedure in place of special legislative procedure,

(f) the provision of Article 192(2) of that Treaty (environment) that permits the application of ordinary legislative procedure in place of special legislative procedure,

(g) the provision of Article 312(2) of that Treaty (EU finance) that permits the adoption of qualified majority voting,

(h) the provision of Article 333(1) of that Treaty (enhanced cooperation) that permits the adoption of qualified majority voting, or

(i) the provision of Article 333(2) of that Treaty that permits the application of ordinary legislative procedure in place of special legislative procedure.

(2) Parliamentary approval is given if—

(a) in each House of Parliament a Minister of the Crown moves a motion that the House approves Her Majesty's Government's intention to support the adoption of a specified draft decision, and

(b) each House agrees to the motion without amendment.

(3) The motions under subsection (2) in respect of a draft decision (“Draft Decision 1”) may include provision (“disapplication provision”) disapplying subsection (1) in respect of any later draft decision which a Minister of the Crown may certify as an amended version of Draft Decision 1; and—

(a) if Parliamentary approval is given in accordance with subsection (2), any disapplication provision agreed to by both Houses shall have effect, and

(b) an amendment to omit the disapplication provision shall be ignored for the purposes of deciding under subsection (2) whether a motion has been agreed to without amendment.

(4) In this section—

(a) “the Treaty on European Union” means the Treaty on European Union signed at Maastricht on 7th February 1992 (as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon), and

(b) “the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union” means the Treaty establishing (what was then called) the European Economic Community, signed at Rome on 25th March 1957 (as amended and renamed by the Treaty of Lisbon).