Problems of Parliamentary Control of European Community Policy

These difficulties include the questions of where Community business should be debated; how long should be allowed for debates; what type of motion should conclude debates; and how wide a range of Community documents should be considered by the Scrutiny Committees?

Legal and Constitutional Implications of United Kingdom Membership of the European Communities: 1967 Cmnd, 3301. Instruments made by the Communities were correctly referred to in the early years of British membership as secondary legislation, the Treaties forming the Communities' primary legislation. This nomenclature, implying, as it does, that the legislation may not be of the first importance, has been criticised as confusing and is being abandoned. See Session 1975-76: First Special Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation etc., House of Commons Paper 336/53-v., para. 1.

Uwe Kitzinger , Diplomacy and Persuasion (London, 1974 ), p. 380.

R. Bieber and M. Palmer , " Power at the Top, the EEC Council in Theory and Practice," The World Today, Vol. 31, No. VIII, August 1975, p. 312.

The Foster Committee issued two reports: Session 1972-73: First Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation, H.C. 143, February 1973, and Session 1972-73: Second Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation, H.C. 463-1 and H.C. 463-II (Minutes of Evidence), October 1973. The Maybray-King Committee also reported twice: Session 1972-73: First Report by the Select Committee on Procedures for Scrutiny of Proposals for European Instruments, H.L. 67, March 1973, and Session 1972-73: Second Report by the Select Committee on Procedure for Scrutiny of Proposals for European Instruments, H.L. 194, July 1973.

H.C. (1972-73) 463-1, para. 36.

See Session 1974-75: First Report from the Select Committee on Procedure, H.C. 294, March 1975, Qu. 81, p. 30.

The House of Commons Committee's terms of reference are "to consider draft proposals by the Commission of the European Economic Community for Secondary Legislation and other documents published by the Commission for submission to the Council of Ministers, and to report their opinion as to whether such proposals or other documents raise questions of legal or political importance, to give their reasons for their opinion, to report what matters of principle or policy may be affected thereby, and to what extent they may affect the law of the United Kingdom, and to make recommendations for the further consideration of such proposals and other documents by the House." The House of Lords Committee's terms of reference are " to consider Community proposals whether in draft or otherwise, to obtain all necessary information about them, and to make reports on those which, in the opinion of the Committee, raise important questions of policy or principle, and on other questions to which the Committee consider that the special attention of the House should be drawn."

See Session 1974-75: First Special Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation &c. H.C. 46, November 1974, and Session 1974-75: Second Special Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation &c. H.C. 234, February 1975.

Their report is contained in H.C. (1974-75) 294.

" Every single debate we have had so far has been a shambles." House of Commons Debates, 19 May 1976, col. 1603 (Mr. Peter Mills). The procedure for holding debates in a Standing Committee has been found unsatisfactory, and little used.

On the overall role of the House of Lords see Janet Morgan , The House of Lords and the Labour Government (Oxford, 1975), p. 44.

Session 1974-75: Second Special Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the European Communities, H.L. 251, June 1975, para. 43, p. 21.

H.C. (1974-75) 294, Qu. 174, p. 52 (Mr. Short).

See Session 1974-75: Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation, &c. H.C. 87-1, Qu. 55, p. 19 (Mr. Hattersley).

House of Commons Debates, December 19, 1974, cols. 1897-2000.

Session 1974-75: Second Special Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the European Communities, H.L. 251, June 1975, para. 40, p. 21.

House of Commons Debates, 17 May 1976, cols. 1143 et seq.

H.C. (1974-75) 234, para. 9, p. 6.

H.C. (1974-75) 87-1, Qu. 50, p. 16 (Mr. Marten and Mr. Hattersley).

H.C. (1974-75) 234, paras. 6-10, p. 6, and H.C. (1974-75) 294, para. 18, pp. viii-ix. Also House of Commons Debates, November 3, 1975, cols. 36-38 (Mr. Short).

Session 1975-76: First Special Report from the Select Committee on European Secondary Legislation, &c. H.C. 336/53-v, April 1976, para. 9, p. 4, and House of Commons Debates, August 4, 1976, written answers, cols. 802-803.

House of Commons Debates, January 16, 1975, col. 819.

Session 1974-75: Second Special Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the European Communities, H.L. 251, paras. 28 and 29, p. 17.

See House of Commons Debates, May 19, 1976, cols. 1576-1578 (Mr. Bryan Gould).

See H.C. (1972-73) 463-11, Qus. 958-959, p. 225 (Mrs. Shirley Williams), and House of Commons Debates, May 19, 1976, col. 1574 (Mr. John Davies). On the activity of the Danish Parliament see Svend Auken , Jacob Buksti and Carsten Lehmann Sørenson , " Denmark joins Europe" Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. XIV, No. 1, September 1975, p. 15 et seq.

House of Commons Debates, November 3, 1975, cols. 64-65.

H.C. (1974-75) 294, Qus. 215 and 217, pp. 59-60.

House of Commons Debates, December 3, 1974, cols. 1485-1515.

See his evidence to the Select Committee on Procedure, H.C. (1974-75) 294, Appendix 5, p. 81.

On these Committees see the evidence of Herr Werner Blischke, in H.C. (1972-73) 463-11, p. 97 et seq., and Michael Niblock, The EEC: National Parliaments in Community Decision-Making (London, 1971), passim.

For example, Session 1975-76: Fourth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the European Communities: Draft Fourth Directive on Company Law, H.L. 24, January 1976, was a 49-page report. Session 1975-76: Fifty-first Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the European Communities, H.L. 305, October 1976, on the Spinelli Report, ran to 174 pages.

An example appears in Session 1974: Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee on European Secondary Legislation, &c. H.C. 208-i, June 1974 p. 3.

H.C. (1972-73) 463-1, para. 46, p. xiv.

On the appointment of Mr, John Davies to this post in 1972 see Helen Wallace and William Wallace , " The Impact of Community Membership on the British Machinery of Government," Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1973, pp. 247 and 255.

H.C. (1974-75) 294, Appendix 5, p. 81.

House of Commons Debates, July 3. 1974, col. 531.

House of Commons Debates, April 12, 1976, col. 1082 (Mr. Peter Mills).

House of Commons Debates, May 19, 1976, col. 1581.

William Wallace , The Foreign Policy Process in Britain (London, 1975) p. 90.

Ibid., p. 270.

See Michael Ryan and Paul Isaacson , "Parliament and the European Communities ," Parliamentary Affairs, Spring 1975, p. 206.

"Going soft on Sovereignty ?," The Economist , June 5, 1976, p. 58.

William Wallace , op. cit, p. 280.

On the necessity for " two circuits of democratic control " see Martin Kolinsky , " Parliamentary Scrutiny of European Legislation," Government and Opposition, Spring 1975, p. 68.

Michael Ryan and Paul Isaacson , op. cit, p. 199.

William Wallace , Foreign Policy and the Political Process (London, 1971), pp. 51-52.