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European Union (Amendment) Bill

May I make some progress? There is only a short time available. There are a number of sensible and important changes about the extension—[Hon. Members: ““Give way.””] I will give way to my hon. Friend in a moment. Under the treaty, there are improvements and changes in the way we organise qualified majority voting. Again, they are to be welcomed in our national interest. The liberalisation of our energy markets across Europe is an important change and improvement. Millions of UK citizens have their energy supplied by French companies. By opening up the energy market through the introduction of qualified majority voting UK companies will have the opportunity to compete across European markets. The treaty improves the position of the United Kingdom in terms of its share of the vote in the Council of Ministers. It streamlines the bureaucracy and reduces the size of the European Commission.