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European Council, 16–17 June

My Lords, without raising expectations of what will happen under the UK presidency, does not my noble friend think that issues need to be resolved urgently in relation to the budgetary priorities, given that the WTO will reconvene in Hong Kong in December? At that point, the European position on the common agricultural policy will become crucial in those international negotiations. I hope that she will feel able to draw to the attention of her colleagues—and our colleagues in Europe—the fact that a position whereby a common agricultural policy sustains every cow in Europe to the extent of $2 a day, but sustains every child in Africa to the extent of $1 a day, is simply not morally right or economically sustainable. Those who claim to have the interests of Africa at heart, as the supporters of the CAP do, should have that anomaly put very clearly before them.