Commentary on Sections Section 3: Changes of terminology
15.Article 1(2)(b) of the Treaty of Lisbon inserts in Article 1 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) a new third paragraph as follows:
““The [European] Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as "the Treaties"). Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value. The Union shall replace and succeed the European Community.””
16.The Treaty of Lisbon amends other provisions of the TEU and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which it renames as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
17.This section makes, and provides power to make, changes in terminology used in legislation, in consequence of the changes made by the Treaty of Lisbon.
18.Subsection (1) inserts in section 1(2) of the 1972 Act a definition of “the EU”, to refer to the European Union, by reference to the Treaty of Maastricht which established it.
19.Following the changes made by the Treaty of Lisbon, Euratom will remain a Community legally distinct from the European Union. But in many cases “the EU” will be a convenient and suitable term to denote collectively the European Union and Euratom. References to the EU in legislation are to include reference to the European Atomic Energy Community where the context either permits or requires such an interpretation (subsection (2)).
20.References in legislation to the original Communities – the European Community, the European Coal and Steel Community or Euratom - or to those European Communities collectively, are to be treated as referring to the EU, or as including a reference to the EU, as the case may require (subsection (6)).
21.Subsection (3) introduces the Schedule which sets out substitutions of terminology in the 1972 Act and the Interpretation Act 1978.
22.Subsections (4) and (5) provides a power for the Secretary of State to make orders, by statutory instrument, amending legislation – primary or secondary – to reflect changes in terminology or numbering arising out of the Treaty of Lisbon and to make incidental provision. Such orders are to be subject to the negative resolution procedure.