HC Deb 16 December 1968 vol 775 cc861-2
22. Mr. Moonman

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government will give financial and other support to the proposed International Institute of Technology in Europe, now under consideration at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Mr. Mulley

Her Majesty's Government will contribute £10,000 towards the costs of the preparatory year.

Mr. Moonman

That remark will be greeted with some enthusiasm, but does not my right hon. Friend feel that the time has arrived when a White Paper should be prepared to set out the British rô le in European collaboration in science and technology, so that many people will have an indication of exactly how serious our intentions are?

Mr. Mulley

That goes rather further than the original Question. As my hon. Friend knows, the preparatory year for the proposed Institute is a time to try to get the various different ideas sorted out, and we have a number of important points to put to the other countries during this period. I will consult my right hon. Friend the Minister of Technology about a White Paper.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that, after the Prime Minister's great speech at Strasbourg about the technological communities he was going to establish, £10,000 is a pretty derisory sum? Following our pulling out of the E.L.D.O. project and the C.E.R.N. reactor, is not it shabby?

Mr. Mulley

It is rather unlike the hon. Gentleman not to have informed himself before asking the question, be cause the proposal, which stems from M. Giscard d'Estaing, is quite different from that of the European technological centre proposed by my right hon. Friend. We have reservations about this later proposal, because it does not fit the ideas of United Kingdom management education and has not been received with great enthusiasm by British industry. That is why we want in the preparatory year to see if we can sort out the differences of approach.

Mr. Alfred Morris

In the context of closer European co-operation, has my right hon. Friend seen a somewhat angry statement from Dr. Luns of the Nether lands about the British Government's reaction to proposals for closer links with the Six? Can he comment on that?

Mr. Mulley

I am not familiar with the exact content of this one of several statements by Dr. Luns. If my hon. Friend will let me have a copy, I will send him my comments.