European Union Act 2011 Explanatory Notes

Section 10: Parliamentary control of certain decisions not requiring approval by Act

104.Section 10 provides that eight specified decisions would require a motion to be tabled by a Minister and for both Houses of Parliament to approve the motion without amendment before the UK could agree to any of those decisions. These decisions are subject to qualified majority voting in the Council, with the exception of those mentioned in subsections (1)(c) (Article 252 TFEU), (1)(f) (Article 308 TFEU), (3) (Article 48(7) TEU, in relation to a provision of TFEU not requiring the Council to act unanimously), and (4) (Article 218(8) TFEU), which are subject to a unanimous vote in Council. In the other cases, even if the UK does not vote in favour of, or otherwise support, a decision that is subject to qualified majority voting, the UK may still end up being bound by that decision if there is a qualified majority in the Council in favour of the adoption of that decision.

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