As we stagger towards the end of the Parliamentary sessions and look forward to sun, sand and sangria, the UK’s relationship with Europe has continued to occupy our minds as well as a good deal of Parliamentary time. At the centre of the current discussion is the UK’s right to opt out of 130 European…
The EU and sport probably aren’t two things that are often thought of together but a Committee which I chair has spent the past few months considering just that. The Lisbon Treaty gave the EU for the first time a formal competence to act in the field of sport. It is a limited competence and…
Every six months chairs of foreign affairs committees from each national parliamentary chamber in the EU get together to discuss foreign affairs at a European level. It’s a small part of making the EU more accountable. The group is known as COFAC (Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees) and as chair of the Lords’ EU foreign…
I’m just back home after a few days in Dublin, where the excitement of the referendum vote on the Lisbon Treaty was at its height on Thursday, a foregone conclusion on Friday after the exit poles and something of a puzzle by Saturday. The lamp posts were covered in placards bearing cryptic and irrelevant sound…
