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European Council: 23-24 March 2006

My Lords, on the question of economic patriotism, to which I would refer as patriotic Luddism, will the noble Lord take clearly a point that he answered reasonably satisfactorily? If the Commission is to go into battle on behalf of the single market—as it should, if any member state transgresses—it needs people to speak up on its behalf, not to be left to take the sort of flak that will inevitably be thrown at it by the country or countries that it argues have transgressed European law. I hope that he will take that point and that the Government will speak up. On energy policy, the argument about whether we in Britain should depend more or less on Russia is rather short-sighted. Frankly, if the Russians are to be unreliable suppliers to our main export markets in continental Europe, that will be extremely bad news for us. It will also be bad news for us in so far as we depend from time to time—in recent months, quite a bit—on supplies of gas that come through continental Europe. Will future dialogue with Russia be based very firmly on pressing the Russians to ratify the Energy Charter, which they signed with the European Union some years ago but which they have never ratified and which, if ratified by them and implemented—two quite big ““ifs””, I suspect—would provide many of the conditions that are most important if Russia is to be regarded as a useful and reliable supplier?