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European Council

Of course, the reinforced co-operation provisions give countries a chance to decide whether to integrate further, but I shall tell the right hon. and learned Gentleman what has changed in the 10 years between 2007 and 1997, when he was in office. When I first came to negotiate the Amsterdam treaty we had been through the beef war, and the absurd thing was that we ended up turning up to meetings and voting against directives that we had proposed. Of course it is important that we are able to protect our own interests. We have done that in respect of the charter and of judicial and home affairs, but it is also important that we protect our interests in a way that allows us to offer leadership on things like climate change, economic reform, defence and enlargement. As a result of what this Government have done over the past 10 years, we have made huge strides forward in those areas.