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Intergovernmental Conference (Lisbon)

The Prime Minister referred to the enforced liberalisation of the energy market in Europe. That is very important because we have been trying to persuade the French to do this for a long time so that British companies could own French energy companies just as French energy companies presently own British ones. Is this not even more important as we face up to Russia and try to ensure our energy security into the future? Will the Prime Minister welcome article 84 of the treaty, which is about intellectual property rights? We have been campaigning to try to ensure that, as the Gowers review said was necessary for the British economy, we have strong intellectual property rights across the whole of Europe, which will now come in thanks only to this treaty.