Has the Conservative party dropped its commitment to renegotiate ECJ jurisdiction over crime and policing?

Has Conservative policy towards ECJ 
power over crime and policing changed?

The chaos of yesterday's 'vote' or 'non vote' on the European Arrest Warrant has obscured a number of things. Not only have the 10 actual measures been waved through, without discussion and scrutiny, but the Home Secretary has avoided having to make a statement on future Conservative policy towards renegotiating the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) power over crime and policing.

Firstly, here are some of the measures 'adopted' last night without debate and without much publicity.

• Confiscation Orders 
• Mutual recognition of sentences 
• Trials in absentia 
• Mutual recognition of financial penalties

They are substantial in their own right and on 1 December all will be subject to the ECJ's jurisdiction.

Will a future Conservative Government renegotiate this area?

Removing the UK justice system from the remit of EU judges has been a Conservative policy for a number of years and one we agree with. When it became clear that the Conservatives could not block the Lisbon Treaty David Cameron stated:

“The third area where we will negotiate for a return of powers is criminal justice. We must be sure that the measures included in the Lisbon Treaty will not bring creeping control over our criminal justice system by EU judges. We will want to prevent EU judges gaining steadily greater control over our criminal justice system by negotiating an arrangement which would protect it" [4 November 2009]

This was followed up in the 2010 Conservative Manifesto:

“Conservative government will negotiate for three specific guarantees – on the Charter of fundamental rights, on criminal justice, and on social and employment legislation – with our European partners to return powers that we believe should reside with the UK, not the EU. We seek a mandate to negotiate the return of these powers from the EU to the UK.”

Clearly, the Coalition Agreement overtook these previous texts, but Theresa May and Chris Grayling have both stated during this Parliament that the ECJ's role would likely feature in any future EU renegotiation. On 16 July 2013, as we set out here, Theresa May was quite explicit:

"Undoubtedly the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice will need to be considered when, after the election, a future Conservative Government renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union"

So it was a surprise that Theresa May writing in the Sunday Telegraph on 9 November did not restate this position. The question is whether we should read anything into this, but as the smoke clears it remains to be seen whether a majority Conservative Government would 'let matters rest'.

The UK government is desperate to strengthen the role of national Parliaments in Europe - but can't get its own house in order

The Government - particularly the Tory wing of it - talks a very good game on the urgent need to strengthen the role of national parliaments in EU decision-making.

The UK Government (rightly) wants to negotiate a "red card" for national parliaments for example, giving them a chance to pull the democratic brake on EU proposals that go too far or aren't proportionate. It has also talked about various other ways to strengthen the role of national parliaments and boosting scrutiny of EU laws in Westminster.

In his Bloomberg speech, David Cameron called for a "bigger and more significant role for national Parliaments" adding:

"It is national parliaments, which are, and will remain, the true source of real democratic legitimacy and accountability in the EU. It is to the Bundestag that Angela Merkel has to answer. It is through the Greek Parliament that Antonis Samaras has to pass his government’s austerity measures. It is to the British Parliament that I must account on the EU...Those are the Parliaments which instil proper respect - even fear - into national leaders."

Well, the Government has just failed by its own standard - and badly.

As we pointed out this morning, despite the controversy surrounding the European Arrest Warrant, it was not explicitly included in the motion MPs will be voting on later tonight concerning the Government's opt-in to 35 EU crime and policing measures. The reason is that the EAW has already been transposed into UK law, unlike 11 of the full list of 35 measures the UK is opting back into which will require secondary legislation - these 11 are the only measures listed in the Government's motion.

This has provoked a storm of protest this afternoon including an extraordinary rebuke from the Speaker and MPs on all sides of the house:

Bercow in strongest attack yet on Govt over European arrest warrant vote: 'People are frankly contemptuous of what's not straight dealing'
— James Chapman (Mail) (@jameschappers) November 10, 2014

You know it's a bad day in the office when you've managed to unite both Bill Cash and Yvette Cooper against you...
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) November 10, 2014

Now Keith Vaz denouncing shambolic attempt to get EU Arrest Warrant thru. & Ming Campbell calling for debate to be pulled
— Mark D'Arcy (@DArcyTiP) November 10, 2014

Can't believe Theresa "Competence" May has made such a mess of this EU Arrest Warrant debate. "Crooked wood," says Rees-Mogg.
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) November 10, 2014

The Government had on several occasions committed itself to holding a vote on the EAW - although it was always likely to  be part of a package, and this is what most people were understandably expecting to take place today.

Following an Open Europe campaign for MPs to have a vote on the original decision to take the block opt-out which they were ultimately granted, in a subsequent letter to the Chairmen of the European Scrutiny, Home Affairs and Justice Committees of the House dated 31 January 2014, Theresa May and Chris Grayling said that:

“The Government will hold a second vote on the final list of measures we will formally apply to rejoin.”

This was seemingly confirmed by David Cameron himself during PMQs a couple of weeks ago when Ed Miliband challenged him on dodging a vote on the EAW due to opposition within his own party, and he responded that:

"There's only one problem with his second question. Which is we are going to have a vote, we're going to have it before the Rochester by-election. His questions have just collapsed."

To which Miliband replied that:

"All I can say is I look forward to us walking through the lobby together to vote for the European Arrest Warrant, two parties working together in the national interest."

It is hard to see why - given it stood to win any vote by a healthy majority given Labour's support - the Government has decided to ensure that the EAW was not mentioned in today's motion - one reason could be that today's motion is not amendable. Had a more wide ranging motion been put forward, MPs might have used this as an opportunity to force a vote on an amendment.

However, the European Arrest Warrant (and many of the other 35 measures) encapsulates the very sensitive balance between civil liberties and democracy, on the one hand, and security, on the other, and it is exactly the type of issue that should be settled by a democratic vote in Parliament. Indeed, as we argued way back in 2010 when the European Union Act was making its way through Parliament:

"Policing, crime, immigration and asylum are issues are hugely politically sensitive and any decisions to sign up to new EU laws in these areas need to be thoroughly debated and democratically accountable. This should be Parliament's job.

As it currently stands, the Government's proposed Bill, although a significant step forward, fails to address the day-to-day transfer of crime, policing and immigration powers from the UK to the EU. So any decision to opt in to a proposal like the controversial European Arrest Warrant will not be covered by the lock.

Most importantly, European judges will have the final say over any law that the UK Government decides to opt in to. By definition, this is a transfer of powers. In other words, it's a zero-sum game: every new justice or policing law the Government signs up to gives more power to the EU institutions at the expense of MPs, Parliament and the British courts. This is a big decision, which currently rests solely on Government Ministers' discretion.

The EU's growing ambitions in justice and home affairs deserve Parliament's undivided attention. It is perfectly reasonable for MPs to demand the power to vote on these crucial decisions that the Government makes in the name of their constituents. In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty not to."

It is hard to comprehend how the Government has contrived to create this problem for itself. And it is a very sorry state affairs indeed if a Government is able to say to Parliament 'whatever this motion says, you are actually voting on X'. This episode will only further undermine public faith in politicians and parliament.

And it does not inspire confidence in the Tories' wider renegotiation agenda.

The coalition has missed a chance to debate the fundamental issue at the heart of cross-border crime and police co-operation

Our Research Director Stephen Booth has written a piece for the Guardian's Comment is Free section, where he argues:

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has announced that the UK will opt out of 133 EU criminal justice measures, using a "block opt-out" negotiated by a previous Labour government. It will then seek to sign up again to some of them, including a "reformed" European arrest warrant (EAW).

As ever, the devil will be in the detail and we should reserve judgment on the government's reform proposals until we've had time to digest them. Nevertheless, there is much here to raise an eyebrow or two. For one, the coalition seems to have arrived at the number of measures it wants to sign up to (35) through a process of "split the difference" between Liberal Democrats who would rather the UK didn't exercise the opt-out at all and Conservatives who would be inclined to opt out of the lot, or only opt back into a handful. An arbitrary process such as this is hardly the model of principled policy-making.

No one seriously argues that the UK would be better off cutting itself off completely from international co-operation on crime and policing. However, there is a legitimate debate to be had about the institutional form it should take and how citizens' rights can best be safeguarded, especially given the current backdrop of transatlantic spying allegations. Governments and the powers that be will always be tempted to abuse their authority. The best antidote to this is democratic scrutiny and accountability.

The EU opt-out is not simply a decision about keeping 133 EU law and order measures. It is also about whether the European court of justice should have full jurisdiction over them for the first time – once the UK opts back in to these 35 measures, EU judges rather than UK judges will have the last word on how they are interpreted. This would have been an important debate, because amending EU law in the wake of an EU judgment that results in something our elected representatives did not intend is extremely difficult, as it can only be achieved through complex EU negotiations. Thus, the democratic link to citizens is broken. In the context of the UK's wider relationship with the EU, an opt-out could have provided the opportunity to debate this fundamental issue.

However, this opportunity has largely been wasted: the temptation to revert to type in any EU debate – be it pro or anti – is often easier than arguing about substance. There are few issues that galvanise Liberal Democrats like civil liberties. Lib Dem backbench home affairs spokesman Julian Huppert has argued that May's claim that "criminals, terrorists and paedophiles" would want MPs to vote against the UK data communications bill (or "snooper's charter") was misleading and the sign of "someone without a rational argument to make". However, in defending the EAW and other EU measures, Lib Dem politicians including Nick Clegg have used the spectre of "paedophiles, murderers and terrorists" to try to shut down the debate. In addition, the party's enthusiasm for keeping the EAW stands in stark contrast to its tough stance on the UK-US extradition treaty, particularly in the case of Gary McKinnon. This is despite the fact that, once the UK opts back in, the EAW is part of a permanent, supranational EU legal system and the UK-US treaty is a bilateral arrangement which, in theory, can be rejected by either party.

The Conservative side of the coalition has not covered itself in glory either. While it is clear that Conservatives are the driving force for taking the opt-out, there has not been a robust principled defence of this move by Conservative ministers, particularly on the role of the EU's court, and therefore, why the party's often cited robust stance on law and order at home could be compatible with exercising the block opt-out.

Poll after poll shows that the British public would like a looser relationship with the EU, including on crime and policing issues. My view is that the UK should return to a system of bilateral, practical crime and policing co-operation with EU partners, which does not involve ceding control to the EU institutions. Others may take a different view, but let's debate the issue.