My Department plays a key role on these issues and is represented on the Interdepartmental European Co-ordination Committee sub-group at which it will be making its views known. That is one aspect of the matter, but we must remember that we are just one member state of the European Union. No doubt there are equivalent committees in all the other member states with their input. It is early days so far as an amendment of the treaty is concerned. It is not like a draft directive, it is a major operation, necessitating extensive procedures and involving not merely the European Parliament, the only organ of the European Union which has addressed the matter so far, but the Commission and Council of Ministers who have yet to address it.
Much work needs to be done before it reaches that point. A large measure of consensus must be arrived at before this can be substantially progressed. I am broadly supportive of the objectives.
These are important issues, not dissimilar from the substantive domestic legislation in course of preparation in my Department. In a sense, therefore, our Government is giving a lead on these issues, ahead of Europe, in that we are already preparing legislation. That is not to say we do not regard these questions as of great importance within the wider European context. Since we are giving a lead by preparing legislation and implementing matters of this nature for ourselves, it follows a fortiori that we would favour their implementation within the broader European context.