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European Council: June 2006

My Lords, the European Council reaffirmed that the existing commitment on enlargement will be honoured. As I said earlier, enlargement has spread security and prosperity across Europe. The General Affairs and External Relations Council called in December for a debate on further enlargement during 2006. That debate started at the June Council and will continue under the Finnish presidency. We will, of course, actively participate in that. I take entirely the concerns expressed by the noble Lord about the message we send to others in the queue, as it were. He will know, however, that we are very committed to the enlargement process.