Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what areas of policy were transferred from unanimity to qualified majority voting by the Lisbon Treaty; whether the United Kingdom has opt-outs from any of those areas; and, if so, from which areas.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

51 provisions were transferred from unanimity to qualified majority voting by the Lisbon Treaty. These were published in the Explanatory Memorandum on the Lisbon Treaty of 17 December 2007 as amended by a Written Ministerial Statement by the then Minister for Europe on 20 February 2008, Official Report, column 53WS. Of these, the following 16 provisions either did not apply to the UK due to its opt-outs or would only apply if the UK decided to exercise its justice and affairs opt-in:

1) Provisions enabling repeal of the aspects of this article related to state aids policy and the effect of the past division of Germany
2) Provisions enabling repeal of this Article (on transport policy as it affects areas of Germany affected by its past division)
3) Appointment of European Central Bank (ECB) executive board (UK opt-out)
4) Social security
5) Use of the euro
6) Measures relating to the Broad Economic Guidelines and excessive deficit procedure
7) Procedure for entry into the euro
8) Mechanism for peer review of Member States’ implementation of policies in this area
9) Border checks
10) Immigration and Frontier Controls
11) Judicial co-operation in Criminal Matters
12) Minimum rules for criminal offences and sanctions
13) Crime prevention
14) Eurojust
15) Police co-operation
16) Europol