HC Deb 17 November 1969 vol 791 cc833-8
20. Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a further statement on the progress of Great Britain's application to join the European Economic Community.

37. Mr. St. John-Stevas

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on British policy concerning the application to join the European Economic Community.

40. Mr. Mayhew

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Great Britain's application to join the Common Market in the light of the conference of European Economic Community Ministers at The Hague.

3. Mr. Cronin

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the present situation with regard to Great Britain's application to join the European Economic Community.

Mr. George Thomson

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which my right hon. Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary gave on 13th October to the hon. Member for Haltemprice (Mr. Wall). [Vol. 788, c. 3–5.]

Mr. Morris

Can we now make it finally clear to our Western European friends that there can be no question of allowing into this country a flood of expensive French farm produce to the hurt of our traditional suppliers in the Commonwealth, the home producer, and, most of all, the British housewife?

Mr. Thomson

I think that the Government's position at this stage is very clear. We have put down our application. We have publicly stated the conditions that we attach to that application. We have said that we have to come to terms with the common agricultural policy, but decisions still have to be made—and this is what I want to emphasise to my hon. Friend—by the six members of the Community themselves about the nature and working of that policy. Then there have to be negotiations.

Mr. St. John-Stevas

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether he has any firm evidence that the attitude of the French Government has changed on this issue, and can he say that he is confident that the French veto will not be exercised once again if negotiations are begun?

Mr. Thomson

As regards the attitude of the French Government, I have very much in mind what the Foreign Minister of France said during the General Assembly meeting of the United Nations, which was also attended by my right hon. Friend. If I remember rightly, he then said that he thought that British membership of a wider European Economic Community was indispensable.

Mr. Mayhew

While waiting for the negotiations to develop, will the Government make a study of the relative decline in the standard of living in this country over the years compared with that in the Common Market countries? Are British families not entitled to know by how much they would be better off even now were it not for the misguided opposition of hon. Members in this House to our entry?

Mr. Thomson

I think that on reflection my hon. Friend will feel that he put the matter slightly inaccurately, though I think that his main argument is a strong one. It is not that our standard of living has declined, but that it has been increasing less quickly than the standard of living in the countries of the Six. I think that it is important for all of us who are engaged in this historic debate to concentrate our attention on the standard of living, and not simply on the cost of living.

Mr. Braine

Is it still the Government's intention, as and when negotiations open, to press for special arrangements for New Zealand?

Mr. Thomson

Yes, Sir. The position about New Zealand is exactly the same as set out in the White Paper put before the House in 1967.

Mr. Shinwell

Will my right hon. Friend and the Foreign Secretary take a look at this afternoon's edition of the Evening Standard? In it my right hon. Friend will see a statement by the head of the Economic Department of the Confederation of British Industry in which he throws an icy douche of cold water on the whole project.

Mr. Thomson

I must confess that I have been so busy preparing my replies to the House this afternoon that I have not had an opportunity of seeing the afternoon edition of the Evening Standard.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

Will the right hon. Gentleman cast his mind back to the Prime Minister's promise that a White Paper or some similar document would be published setting out the Government's new estimates of the cost and the pros and cons of joining the Common Market? Is the publication ready? If it is, when are we likely to have it?

Mr. Thomson

The publication is urgently in hand. It will be made available to the House and to the nation as quickly as is consistent with giving the nation all the necessary information.

21. Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what grants 'are paid by his Department to organisations working for British membership of the European Economic Community; and how much is paid to each organisation.

Mr. George Thomson

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by the Joint Under-Secretary of State to the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Marten) on 3rd November and to the reply given to my hon. Friend himself on 1st November, 1968.—[Vol. 790, c. 26; Vol. 772, c. 5.]

Mr. Morris

Can my right hon. Friend say whether any of this public money is spent in explaining to our Western European friends the majority view of the British people that we should not proceed with the application?

Mr. Thomson

My hon. Friend will not expect me to accept the assumption about the majority view of the British people—[HON. MEMBERS: Why not?] Because I think that the House of Commons and Her Majesty's Government are bound in these matters to rest on the majority view when it was last expressed in this House.

Mr. Marten

Does the right hon. Gentleman recall that in the reply given to me by the Joint Under-Secretary of State it was said that £5,000 a year is paid to this pro-European Council for promoting an understanding of the attitude of the British people towards Europe? Can the right hon. Gentleman say that that money will be withdrawn if it is not putting abroad in the Common Market countries the true attitude of the British people that they do not want to go into the Common Market?

Mr. Thomson

I should not like the hon. Gentleman to be under a misapprehension about the facts. The current grant to the organisation to which I think the hon. Gentleman is referring, which is Britain in Europe, is £7,500. It is used to help to promote a proper understanding in Europe of the British point of view generally on European affairs. The second part of the hon. Gentleman's question is hypothetical.

28. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has received in the last six months from members of the Commonwealth concerning the effects on their economies of a possible United Kingdom entry into the European Economic Community.

Mr. George Thomson

Exchanges between Her Majesty's Government and other Commonwealth Governments are, of course confidential, but I can confirm that the question of Commonwealth interests involved in British membership of the European Economic Community has been discussed both bilaterally and multilaterally on a number of occasions during the last six months. The meeting of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers which took place in Barbados in September provided, for example, an important opportunity for an exchange of views with Commonwealth Governments.

Mr. Hamilton

Has any positive approval been given by all members of tie Commonwealth of the Government's insistence on going ahead with the negotiations, and, further, has any positive assurance been given to a country like, in particular, New Zealand that no agreement will be ratified by Her Majesty's Government unless and until the interests of New Zealand are safeguarded?

Mr. Thomson

The position of New Zealand, like the position of the developing sugar economies, has been made clear in our application, and, as I said earlier today, that position remains absolutely as it was originally stated in 1967. I myself had the honour of leading the British delegation to the recent Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in Trinidad, where we had a most vigorous debate on this matter, and I was left with the general impression that there was an increasing understanding among the Commonwealth countries of the desirability of British membership of a wider European economic community. Many of the countries of the Commonwealth are making their own arrangements both with the European Economic Community and among themselves., in the form of various free trade area and common market arrangements. I think that the general view throughout the Commonwealth was that they could not deny to us the right to do the kind of things which they themselves were seeking to do.