Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the legal effect is of registering the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council on 18 and 19 February 2016, with the UN.

Mr David Lidington

The Decision of the Heads of State or Government is a treaty between the 28 Member States. Article 102 of the UN Charter and Article 80 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provide that every treaty and every international agreement shall be registered with the UN Secretariat. Registration with the UN is a clear indicator that the document is a treaty.