CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Constitutional and Administrative Law

Constitutional and Administrative Law

In a recent report, the UK House of Lords European Committee criticised the European Commission's proposals for the 2010 European Communities budget for maintaining a very high level of spending on agriculture, and failing to shift adequate resources to stimulus measures to aid economic recovery. It expressed frustration that, in the middle of an economic crisis, the proportion of the budget going to agriculture remained so large.

It identified a particular problem for the funding of the second tranche of the European Economic Recovery Programme. This was the stimulus package of €5 billion agreed in March 2009, of which €2.6 billion was to be funded from the 2009 budget and €2.4 billion from the 2010 budget. Because of the limited margin between the Financial Perspective ceiling and proposed appropriations for Heading 1 of the budget Sustainable Growth, last year it was agreed to fund the energy infrastructure projects by transferring some of the unused margin under Heading 2 (mainly agriculture) to Heading 1. The tortuous route to reaching agreement on this budget reallocation is well described in a blog post on the European Journal site.

Membership

The following are the different types of member (together with their exact numbers) that are present in the House of Lords in August 2010.

Party

Life Peers

ExceptedHereditary Peers*

Bishops

Total

Conservative

140

48

188

Labour

221

4

225

Liberal Democrat

70

5

75

Crossbench

150

32

182

Bishops

26

26

Other**

24

2

26

Total

605

91

26

722

Note: This table excludes 16 Members who are on leave of absence, 16 disqualified as senior members of the judiciary and 1 disqualified as an MEP.

By type

Men

Women

Total

Archbishops and bishops

26

0

26

Life Peers under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876

22

1

23

Life Peers under the Life Peerages Act 1958

463

151

614

Peers under the House of Lords Act 1999

90

2

92

TOTAL

601

154

755

* Made up of 75 peers elected by parties and groups, 15 peers elected by the whole House and one royal office-holder (the Earl Marshal). The second royal office-holder (the Lord Great Chamberlain) is currently on leave of absence.

Problem Arises With The 2010

The same problem arises with the 2010 draft budget, in that there is not enough of a margin in Heading 1 to fund the second tranche of the EERP. Apparently, in the political agreement last year, it was agreed that the remaining €2 400m would be funded through a “compensation Mechanism” to be defined. At the conciliation of the 2010 and 2011 budgetary procedures, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission will examine all available sources that could provide for the compensation of funds. Presumably the most likely source is a further transfer of the margin in the agricultural budget to Heading 1.

It may not even be the leader of the largest party: if there were a hung parliament, it might be whoever who can mollify different factions and stitch together a workable agreement between them. But, as with the debates, Britain's political system has now become presidential. Millions of people honestly report that they will be voting for David Cameron, or Nick Clegg, or Gordon Brown - even though only the electors in their own particular constituencies will actually get the chance. The rest of us vote for them by proxy, by choosing one ...