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European Council

My Lords, on the previous occasion that my noble friend delivered the Prime Minister's Commons Statement on a prior European Council, did he notice the coincidence in the accompanying conclusions communiqué that the number of SMEs in the European Union is 23 million and that the number of unemployed in the EU is, give or take thousands, almost precisely the same number? Without expecting my noble friend to have the same UK statistics to hand, does he find it attractive that British SMEs should seek to provide one extra job each, carrying the double advantage of creating an example of hope to the rest of Europe at large and simultaneously highlighting the desirability of reducing regulations on companies with fewer than 10 people?