The negotiations were long and hard. No country secured everything it wanted in negotiations – we did not in our negotiations in the early 1970s. That is not the point; the European Union is an organic entity evolving and changing as its positions, procedures and regulations are honed by internal debate and discussion. It is a unique institution which advances by compromise and agreement and not by force majeure or the diktat of the strong. It is precisely because of its momentum on all fronts that the negotiations have grown more complex with each succeeding enlargement as the acquis has grown.