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European Council: 14-15 December 2006

My Lords, on that latter point, I have not seen the term ““European migration agency”” in any of the briefs that I have read. I can return only to the Statement, which said: "““The Council also agreed to have a common European asylum system in place by the end of 2010, starting next year, with a preliminary evaluation of its first phase””." Therefore, this issue will be upfront and is not for the long distance. The matter will come before the House early on. On my noble friend’s first point on enlargement, as I understand it, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey are in the queue. I do not know the dates and I do not think that they have been set. It is accepted that there is a long way for the negotiations to go. Indeed, as I said, regarding the western Balkans, there is no evidence of a higher hurdle being put in front of those countries. Their aspirations and those of other countries to join the European Union are there and all of them know what the rules are—they are not changing and they include the rule of law, democratic systems and other attributes of the European Union. It does mean a lot of change for some countries compared with the way that they have been operating their societies. If they think that the prize is worth it, they will make the changes. In the negotiations, each application will be dealt with on its merits, on a country-by-country basis.