European Affairs

No, the hon. Gentleman can come in later when I deal with that issue. The Minister was right to talk about the matters for discussion in Europe being jobs and growth. We also need to discuss climate change, external relations and co-ordination on crime. The implementation of Lisbon, though, will inevitably dominate over the next few months, and we have seen some of the initial decisions on it. We strongly welcome the appointment of Baroness Cathy Ashton, who is well qualified for her post. I would say to the Government, though, that the Foreign Secretary was ill advised to talk about wanting to see a European President who could stop the traffic in Beijing, Moscow, Washington and so on. That is not what he told the House when he was trying to get the Lisbon legislation through, when the Government talked about the roles of European President and High Representative as being chairmanship roles. It was wrong of him to be so inconsistent when it came to the appointments to those posts. I have to say that he was completely unsuccessful with respect to the former Prime Minister—and like the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois), we are delighted that he was. The European External Action Service is incredibly important, and as I said in an intervention, while I have no doubt that Cathy Ashton will ensure that she represents the whole EU, the fact that she comes from Britain, with our experience and expertise, is most welcome in the setting up of such as system.