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European Council

The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that there are all sorts of risks and dangers in the debate. We have to make sure that enlargement countries understand our position, for example, and that people understand our position on the rebate, which is not that we are not prepared to discuss it or any changes to it, but that such discussions must take place in the context of a different approach by the EU. He is also right about the trade dangers. However, I think that we have reached the point where, unless we have the debate about what type of EU we want and conduct it from a pro-European perspective—the only perspective that will carry any weight in the rest of Europe—we will not get the right decisions on any of the issues, including the WTO. It is important that, at the end of the year, we have a strong European position on reform at the WTO. We will have to use every lever available to ensure that that happens, but we have passed the point where we can pretend that the debate is not needed.