Parliament yesterday approved the Bill amending the European Union Act in all its stages.

Winding up the debate in second reading, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said that it would also apply to decisions taken by the European Council, which amended treaties. The simplified revision procedure referred to amendments decided by the European Council. The object of the bill was to apply the new simplified revision procedure to amend the treaty introduced by the Lisbon Treaty.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman George Vella said events had shown that there could be agreements between the government and the opposition following meaningful discussions.

When the Bill was introduced last February, the opposition had objected to the definition of the word “decision”, which had now been amended to refer to decisions by the European Council.

He said this was another way of strengthening Parliament’s power of scrutiny. Discussions could now be held not only at the Foreign Affairs Committee but also in the whole House. He referred to a decision on Monday by the German Constitutional Court that “strengthened the participation rights of the Bundestag again in matters of further European integration”.

In future, the German federal government has to inform Parliament as early as possible about international negotiations such as the euro rescue, European Solidarity Mechanism, and to be allowed to participate in the debate.

As justification, the court stated that greater involvement of Parliament in such contracts served to compensate for the shift of competencies of the EU.

The Bill was unanimously approved in all stages.