European Union Act 2011
| Act of Parliament | |
| Long title | An Act to make provision about treaties relating to the European Union and decisions made under them, including provision implementing the Protocol signed at Brussels on 23 June 2010 amending the Protocol (No. 36) on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community; and to make provision about the means by which directly applicable or directly effective European Union law has effect in the United Kingdom. |
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| Citation | 2011 c. 12 |
| Introduced by | William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary (Commons) David Howell, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Lords) |
| Territorial extent |
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| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 19 July 2011 |
| Commencement |
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| Repealed | 31 January 2020 |
| Other legislation | |
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Status: Repealed | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Part of a series of articles on |
| UK membership of the European Union (1973–2020) |
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The European Union Act 2011 (c. 12) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, requiring a referendum be held on amendments of the Treaty on European Union or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Introduced in the House of Commons by Her Majesty's Principal Foreign Secretary, William Hague on 11 November 2010, the Bill received its Second Reading by 330-195 on 7 December, and was passed by the Commons on 8 March 2011. The Bill was read a second time in the House of Lords on 22 March, after a hostile reception by Peers. The Act received Royal Assent on 19 July 2011.
The act was passed as a result of Conservative Party criticisms over the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008, which had in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar instituted the Lisbon Treaty by traditional parliamentary procedures used for all previous treaties, instead of by referendum. They argued that a referendum had been promised in 2005 in the Labour manifesto. In fact, the manifesto promise related to a previous proposal for a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe which would have replaced the various EU treaties approved by parliament and which, due to its characterisation as a "constitution", was considered by Labour as warranting a referendum. That proposal had, however, fallen after France and the Netherlands failed to approve it in their referendums. The EU then reverted to amending the existing treaties on selected points, rather than replacing them with a new constitution. The Labour government argued that these amendments (contained in the Lisbon Treaty) did not warrant a referendum. The Conservative party argued for one and subsequently pledged that any future treaty changes should be subject to one. Through this act, they fulfilled this pledge once they came to government in 2010 in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
The act was repealed by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.