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European Union (Amendment) Bill

That is a ““when did you stop beating your wife?”” argument. Can we please not have that sort of argument? The noble Lord, Lord Roper, has explained, and I have tried to explain, politely, the purpose of this instrument. It is a perfectly legitimate: it is for dealing with the activities that the European Union undertakes in the form of conflict prevention and peacekeeping operations outside the European Union. There are no provisions in any of the treaties for conducting such operations within the European Union. It is considered unthinkable that they should ever arise. You cannot turn negatives into positives in a vacuum. It really would be wiser if the noble Lord would, at this very late hour, ask the Minister to reply briefly and then withdraw his amendment because we are wasting time.