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European Council: 23-24 March 2006

My Lords, will the Minister say a little more about the discussion on small businesses? I understood that the purpose of the summit was to discuss small businesses further. Will he confirm that the discussion was not confined to the sort of generalisations that are commonly made about the business of small businesses and that there was forensic examination of some of the existing legislation? I have in mind the late payments directive. Was that discussed, and was it considered to be successful? Were there discussions about the general approach to the establishment of the single market, which, for many of us, has too often been concerned with creating a market for big businesses when it should of course also have policies to help small businesses participate in an ever-growing single European market?