Following one of the meetings in Brussels which followed the ending of the hostilities in Iraq, it was put to President Chirac that his view on Iraq would have been defeated if the principle of QMV on common foreign and security policy which he supports had been in place in a European Union of 25 members. He had the good grace to acknowledge the truth of that proposition. He also acknowledged that if the European Union is to have a common foreign policy then countries such as his will have to accept the notion of defeat. That must be the core of the formulation of any process for achieving a common foreign policy much less a foreign policy itself.