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European Council: June 2006

My Lords, my noble friend might not be surprised if I were to say that some of us would not on this occasion echo the words of my noble friend Lord Anderson of Swansea in saying that this was a non-event. In a few years’ time, the fact that Council meetings will be televised will be seen as a watershed. I know that it is on the back of the fiasco of the constitution, but unfortunately—some of us might think that it is unfortunate—the demos nowadays to a large extent is the television. We ought to reflect that although there are obvious concerns that people have to speak for the television, this House some 20 years ago managed to get over its initial worries about that. On the broader question of the constitution, I was one of those who apparently echoed the feelings of Jacques Delors, when he said to his successor, ““Please do not call this damn thing the constitution””. It is to some extent semantics. Regarding the framework for enlargement, obviously we need to have different rules as we go along. I am even a bit sceptical about a Green Paper; as if there is ever going to be a once-for-all end to what this animal is. It has evolved. Only a few weeks ago, the Conservative Party was very strong on the need to have a really integrated energy approach to the former Soviet Union. That was not really high on the agenda a few months ago. We have all welcomed the results—the Statement it is referred to as a compromise—on the services directive. As one of those with a trade union background, I was a bit worried about some of the principles of the early drafts of the services directive; so that is welcome. It is very good that Europe is not now going to be seen as a secret society. Pragmatic work will go on. Annex 6 notes the importance of the EU-Africa partnership on migration and development. I am quite sure that in 10 years’ time that will be seen to be an enormously important topic.