§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place in the Library a copy of the text referred to in the Declaration of the President of the EU as a negotiating acquis; and whether it is regarded by the Government as a negotiating acquis not open to further discussion. [145498]
§ Mr. MacShaneWe have placed copies of all the documents produced by the Presidency during the IGC in the Library of the Houses. These include a compromise text tabled for the Naples Conclave on 28–29 November 2003 and a further text tabled in the week preceding the European Council. Yet another compromise text, promised for the second day of the European Council, was not in the event tabled, though the President of the European Council, Mr. Berlusconi, drew on it when summing up at the end of the meeting.
Until the negotiations are completed, all aspects are potentially open to further discussion. But the Italian Presidency went through the normal negotiating process of successive refinements and approximations of a text, in the search for consensus, and we would expect the next Presidency to want to draw upon this work.