Treaty of Lisbon (No. 2)

The hon. Gentleman is certainly misunderstanding me—whether deliberately or not, I do not know. I thought that I had made the point clearly in response to an intervention. Of course there will continue to be a whole range of bilateral—or even multilateral—agreements between companies and countries. However, Europe needs to speak with one voice on Russia's policy intentions. Let me conclude on a more general point, which comes back to a point made by the hon. Member for Northavon. Since its inception, European Union member states have been able to choose to pool sovereignty and work together with others in the interests of each of us. In this interesting debate it has been extraordinary to hear the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton and many other Conservatives, although not all, on one hand claiming to support energy liberalisation across the European Union, and having no serious argument against the Lisbon treaty's energy provisions—as the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) made clear—yet on the other being absolutely determined to oppose the treaty and vote against the Bill. Furthermore, if and when the treaty is ratified by this Parliament and those of every other member state across the European Union, those Conservatives threaten to reject and denounce the treaty and throw into jeopardy the whole legal basis of the European Union's operation—and thus disrupt all the efforts, which they claim to support, towards energy liberalisation. That would be disastrous for our constituents' interests, for Britain and for the European Union as a whole. That fundamental contradiction in the official position of the Conservative party, which has undoubtedly allowed its anti-European prejudices to triumph over its supposed commitment to the interests of the British people, will lead the House to reject its position and, I believe, will lead the British people to reject it as well.