---

European Council

My hon. Friend is of course absolutely right and that is another reason why this agreement is so important. Some Opposition Members seem to think that countries hold the presidency for a year, when, in fact, they hold it for six months. As my hon. Friend rightly says, the other presidency in 2008 is Slovakia, which is of course a great supporter of reform, but in any event, the real point that he makes is worth emphasising. In the end, we want to see the European Union expand to take in those Balkan countries that for decades—for centuries, even—have been a huge problem for the whole development of the European Union. If we ended up having no budget in respect of this enlargement—relating to central and eastern Europe—there is no way that we could have prepared the ground for future enlargement to include those Balkan countries. Whatever people may say about agreements such as this—there is always criticism of them—in the end, we had to do two things: to get an immediate deal that secures the short term and to get a process agreed that allows us to get the longer-term reform. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: had we not done the first thing, the enlargement that I assume all of us want to see—toward Croatia and Macedonia and, in time, other Balkan states—would have been put at risk.