Commentary Section 1: The Accession Treaty
12.Subsection (1) amends section 1(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 (c.68), so as to include the new Accession Treaty within the list of treaties implemented by the 1972 Act in UK law.
13.Subsection (2) approves, for the purpose of section 12 of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 (c.24), the provisions of the Accession Treaty insofar as they relate to the powers of the European Parliament. Section 12 of that Act requires that a treaty which provides for any increase in the powers of the European Parliament must be approved by an Act of Parliament before being ratified by the United Kingdom.
14.Two provisions of the Protocol and three provisions of the Act of Accession, annexed to the Accession Treaty, affect the powers of the European Parliament. Article 9 of the Act specifies the number of representatives allocated to each of the 27 Member States with effect from the start of the 2009-2014 parliamentary term. Article 21 of the Protocol and Article 24 of the Act perform the same task for the transitional period from the date of accession until the election of the new Parliament. Article 43 of the Protocol and Article 43 of the Act require that the European Parliament makes the necessary adaptations to its rules of procedure. Although none of these provisions create new powers for the Parliament, they have the effect of applying existing powers to persons to whom they could not otherwise have been applied prior to the entry into force of the Accession Treaty. For this reason, approval is required under the 2002 Act.