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European Union (Amendment) Bill

It is a pleasure to debate again with the noble Baroness, who has great expertise in and knowledge of agricultural and farming matters. I shall answer her questions very briefly; I think that the Committee may want to move on. We do think that the new measures will help. How can one ever be sure? We do, however, think that they will. Co-decision, on balance, is certainly a good move and may help to break what has obviously been an unsatisfactory position until now. I can tell the noble Baroness that as the Marine Bill is national legislation, it will have nothing whatever to do with the European Union. On the health check, I said that it would not bring budgetary reductions. We will have to wait until the next financial perspective for substantial budgetary reductions to show themselves, but it is very important that the review in 2008-09 shows the way towards them. The negotiations that will begin perhaps a year or two after that leading up to 2013 will, we hope, lead to the reductions that we all think are necessary.