David Cameron will fail to take back powers from Brussels under his plans to opt out of almost a hundred European Union law-and-order measures, a Commons committee warns today.
His plans may even result in a net flow of powers to the EU rather than back to the UK, the Home Affairs Select Committee said. The findings of the committee on the proposal to opt out from a raft of EU law-and-order measures are a blow to the Government as it seeks to persuade the public that it can get powers back from Brussels.
In July, Theresa May told MPs that her plans to opt out of around 130 measures and opt back in to 35 were “first and foremost” about bringing powers back home. The committee’s report, however, said that many of the powers the UK is planning to opt out of related to existing criminal offences in the Britain or were measures that were defunct or not relevant.
It concluded: “If the Government proceeds with the opt in as proposed, we note that it will not result in any repatriation of power. Indeed the increased jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice may result in a net flow of powers in the opposite direction.”
Downing Street denied that the report’s findings were a bad omen for Mr Cameron’s promise to repatriate a raft of powers from Brussels before holding an in/out referendum. “The Prime Minister believes he is taking the right approach,” his official spokesman said.
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