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European Council: 14-15 December 2006

My Lords, I will take the last point first. The noble Lord is absolutely right: migration is important. It is important for legislators, Government and opinion-formers to be upfront about this because that can prevent misleading tabloid headlines. That is the reality. If you do not discuss it and do not accept that it is an issue, then you are more likely to have the agenda led by the headlines in the press. They can sometimes be less than factually accurate—I will put it in that way. The point is well made by the noble Lord, and I will ensure that my colleagues are made aware of it. I am grateful for the noble Lord’s point about the strategic importance of enlargement. Obviously, there was a discussion about Turkey. Turkey did not form a great part at this Council because it had been signed off by the Foreign Ministers earlier in the week. An agreement was made, as I indicated in the Statement. The noble Lord made a happy reference to the fact that good tidings were around because there was not a big discussion of the constitutional treaty, for reasons that I hope I have explained.