European Affairs

I am afraid that I cannot enlighten the hon. Gentleman on that at the moment. As I said earlier, a draft paper on the EAS has gone around, but it is very sketchy. Once the High Representative is fully in post, she will present a paper to the Council and there will then be two months for the European scrutiny Committees in the Commons and the Lords to examine it. We want to ensure that the EAS is put together rationally, that it does not seek to do things that should be done by member states, and that it reduces the inefficiencies in the current system, in which the Council has a desk officer for some countries, and several different directorates in the Commission also have desk officers for individual countries.