European Union (Amendment) Bill

I refer the hon. Gentleman to his own report, which discusses elements of the document and says that one foreign policy aspect"““is unlikely to be beneficial to the UK's position in the EU.””" It then says"““We recommend that the Government should publicly acknowledge the significance of the foreign policy aspects of the Lisbon Treaty.””" Those are not my words; they are the words of the hon. Gentleman's report. The Foreign Secretary has a problem. A whole range of other European Union leaders have an inconvenient tendency to tell their own electorates just how similar the two documents are. Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, said that they were 90 per cent. the same. The Spanish Foreign Minister said that they were 98 per cent. the same. The Spanish Prime Minister literally went one better, and said that they were 99 per cent. the same. Valery Giscard d'Estaing—back in November, before someone whispered in his ear—told the ““Today”” programme that when the two were compared,"““it's just another presentation and combination of presentations but the text is word to word the same one.””" Even within the Labour pantheon back home, the cracks are beginning to open wider. Bob Crowe—[Laughter.]