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European Council

I pay tribute to the Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Europe on their work in pushing forward the economic reform agenda. In response to Opposition Members, let me say that Lisbon was different because it set out benchmarks for the first time. The Foreign Secretary will know that, according to the Centre for European Reform, Britain has done extremely well against those benchmarks. Is he confident, however, that our European partners have learned the lessons of the Kok report, because many of them are lagging well behind on them? May I also welcome the establishment of the European Research Council and offer Leicester or Blackburn as a possible home?