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European Council

Let me try to rattle through that long list of questions. On Belarus, the statement of conclusions spells out that the EU will be considering restrictive measures against those responsible. I cannot anticipate precisely what will be decided, but there could be a range of measures, including travel bans and asset freezes. As the right hon. Gentleman said, it is a disgrace that Belarus remains a dictatorship—the last in Europe—and it cannot continue in that way. On Gibraltar, both the joint statement between the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, QC, and myself—a copy of which will be in the Library—and my written ministerial statement make clear the position in respect of sovereignty, which is that sovereignty remains British as long as the people of Gibraltar wish it to do so. Should they change their minds about that, which I do not anticipate for a second, the provisions of article 10 of the treaty of Utrecht would apply. The right hon. Gentleman asked me about a new round of talks on Iran. There are in hand arrangements that we are trying to make for a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany later this week. Of course, I will inform the House once those arrangements are firm. On aid and funding to Hamas, I have nothing further to add from what we discussed in First Order questions. The quartet statement earlier in the year set out three principles that we expect Hamas to follow. At the same time—this is an issue for the whole House—we are wrestling with the need to ensure that the people of the occupied territories are not punished, by being deprived of humanitarian aid, for a vote that they freely and fairly exercised in elections that were regarded as free and fair. That is something that we have to work through. On economic reform, the right hon. Gentleman asked me about the comment made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister at the time of Lisbon. As a matter of fact, I do think that Lisbon has involved a sea change in EU thinking. It is true that the sea is very large and rather thicker than the sea that we are used to and the tanker of the EU is so big that it takes some time to turn round. However, let us take the example of better regulation. Until two or three years ago, the European Commission was simply a machine for producing more and more regulation. The right hon. Gentleman asked me about conversations that I have had with commissioners and others. I have had endless conversations. When I first got this job, I tried to have conversations about ending gold-plating in the Foreign Office and doing the same in Brussels and it was as though I had said something indecent, but these days things are changing. Under Günter Verheugen, the commissioner with responsibility for better regulation, there has been a big change. Some 68 pending items of legislation have been withdrawn. There is a rolling programme to repeal, codify, recast or modify 228 further pieces of legislation and more than 1,400 related legal acts over the next three years, and much else besides. On science, it is important to recognise that up until about 1997—I choose that date with care—the Government’s record on investment in science was lamentable, but my recollection is that scientific investment has almost doubled since then. We will see the effect of that flowing through into research and development more widely. On services, the right hon. Gentleman asked me about the country of origin. It has been replaced by the country of destination principle. Personally, having considered the matter pretty carefully, I am not sure that the country of origin principle was worth dying in a ditch for and I think there are advantages to the country of destination principle. There are no proposals for an EU energy regulator and no changes to the treaty base. I was very tactful when I discussed our old friend the EU constitution with EU colleagues at a dinner on Thursday night. I repeated the comment that I made in the House a few weeks ago that it was, at best, in limbo. I drew attention to the fact that, at the time at which I said that, I understood that limbo could not take place until one was dead, but was not aware that His Holiness the Pope had abolished limbo in the meanwhile.