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European Council: June 2006

My Lords, we must all have been struck by the contrast between the contributions made by the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, and the noble Lord, Lord McNally. That is perhaps the answer to those airily talking of the faint possibility of a Liberal Democrat-Conservative pact after some future general election. It is fair to say that the consensus is that this was effectively a non-event. Such a bland document will hardly merit a footnote in the history book. For example, nothing of any provocation was said. Certainly, there was no mention in the paragraph on Turkey that it is currently barring access to its ports by a member country of the Union—namely, Cyprus. It is as if the communiqué was seeking to avoid any form of controversy, though I do not blame the Austrian presidency for that. I want briefly to raise what the Prime Minister said about a new set of rules being needed for a union when it reaches 27. Is it the Government’s view that this new set of rules will be just technical, on new weighting on voting in the European Parliament, for example, or new weighting in the Council? Or, is it something of greater significance? The answer may give us some pointer as to whether that new package will merit a future referendum.