Has Parliament been bound?

An interesting exchange with the Foreign Secretary on 16th October 2007, from the House of Commons EU Scrutiny Committee's 'Uncorrected Record' of proceedings, linked here:

Q179 Chairman: Can I ask that our legal experts go through the document because there are a number of uses of the word "shall" not just in 8c but also, I note, in 63, and make sure that they are taken out wherever they exist because we will not be compelled as a Parliament?

David Miliband: The point is that obligations shall not be put on parliaments, and that is absolutely clear.

Q180 Mr Cash: You mean, despite the European Communities Act which actually imposes the obligation to accept all European law? That is why the argument is circular, Mr Miliband.

David Miliband: No, it is not because the rights that are extended to national parliaments have never existed before. Under this reform Treaty, stronger than the Constitutional Treaty, this Parliament has the right to contribute to the governance of the European Union. It has never had that before.

Q181 Mr Hands: That is an absurd argument, Foreign Secretary, that we have never before had the right as a Parliament to contribute to the governance of the European Union. That is what you have just said. Of course we have had the right to do that. As an elected UK Parliament, of course we have had the right to contribute to the governing of the EU.

David Miliband: Only through Treaty change. In the future, measures that have previously been adopted only by governments will now be open for national parliaments to have a say. I would have thought you would actually recognise that is a good thing, not a bad thing, we agree on that.

Q182 Mr Cash: We were there before 1972.

David Miliband: You were indeed there before 1972.