HC Deb 05 February 1962 vol 653 cc7-8
8. Mr. Peart

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make available as a White Paper the details of the Common Market Plans for Agriculture recently agreed in Brussels.

Mr. Soames

I have nothing to add to the reply which my right hon. Friend, the Lord Privy Seal, gave on this point to the hon. Member for Wednesbury (Mr. Stonehouse) and to my hon. Friends the Members for Yarmouth (Mr. Fell) and Worcester (Mr. Walker).

Mr. Peart

Is the Minister aware that there is very little official information available about this agreement, that even the farming organisations are unable to get proper English texts, and is it not important that hon. Members should know what we are really negotiating about in Brussels, and that this agreement should be known? Is it the intention of the Government to sneak into Europe?

Mr. Soames

As my right hon. Friend said last week, we are awaiting the final text of this agreement. At present, all that we have is the provisional text, and I understand that interested bodies have already obtained copies of the provisional text. My right hon. Friend would not publish as a White Paper anything that was not the official text. It is merely a matter of waiting until this is forthcoming before it is placed before hon. Members.

Mr. Turton

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the Lord Privy Seal promised to put in the Library the document that he had in the original French? That promise was given last Monday and the document has not yet appeared in the Library. Why are the Government so reluctant to allow Members of Parliament to see this document?

Mr. Soames

There is no reluctance on the part of the Government; it is merely that the final text has not yet been forthcoming.

Mr. Peart

Will the Minister reconsider this from the point of view of agriculture? Forgetting about the Lord Privy Seal, is it not important that people representing agricultural interests should know even about the provisional agreement and details of the provisional text, and will he reconsider this?

Mr. Soames

Any question of reconsideration is not possible because we cannot publish the text until we have the text and it is available to us. I think that I can help the hon. Gentleman by saying that we have had knowledge for a long time of the proposals which the Commission put forward. Certain of these proposals have been solidified, so to speak, with certain adaptations and changes in the agreement. Certain areas in the proposals have been solidified into agreement within the Six, but this does not in any way affect our intention of putting forward our proposals in such a way as to safeguard, as I have said, and many of my right hon. Friends have said, the vital interests of agriculture and horticulture.

Sir J. Duncan

As soon as my right hon. Friend gets the document in French, will he get it translated into English so that the rest of us can understand it? Can he assure us that it will not be translated in Paris or Brussels, when there may be some mistranslation?

Mr. Soames

It will be translated as soon as we receive it.

Mr. Morris

Will the Minister tell the House now or at some later stage what advantages there are to British agriculture, if any, in entering the Common Market?

Mr. Soames

That is very wide of the question.