HC Deb 16 July 1975 vol 895 cc1499-501
32. Mr. Wigley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will introduce proposals designed to improve liaison between bodies representing Welsh interests and the institutions of the EEC.

Mr. Hattersley

Full account is taken of Welsh interests under the existing arrangements for the representation of the United Kingdom in the institutions of the EEC and for the formulation of the Government's policies on EEC matters.

Mr. Wigley

The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the EEC is opening a full-time office in Cardiff, as it is in Edinburgh. Does he not feel it appropriate for Wales and the Welsh Office particularly to have a full-time office in Brussels to represent Welsh interests and for Wales to have a permanent base there similar to the office that Bavaria has in relation to the EEC, if Wales is to have direct representation on the permanent commission of the United Kingdom in Brussels and, in due course for the Welsh Assembly to have direct links with the institutions of the EEC?

Mr. Hattersley

As regards the Welsh Assembly and its direct links, presumably with the European Assembly, this must be decided as part of our general deliberations on direct elections and things that go with that. On direct representation within the Commission, suspecting that the hon. Gentleman might draw my attention to the German example I have examined that. I do not think it is as direct and precise as he suggests. The German model is rather like the British model. Through the decisions of the national Government, the unified national Government, the representations and the interests of various parts are properly observed, and I think that is what happens in Britain.

Mr. Kinnock

Is it not true to say that the office in Cardiff, in any case, was a pre-referendum Commissioners' gimmick and that now they are significantly embarrassed by the applications coming in from all over the remainder of the EEC for equally fruitless establishments at all the assorted parts of the Community?

Mr. Hattersley

The establishment of the office in Wales is not fruitless. There are all sorts of ways in which the Principality can, if it chooses—if its industry and its local authorities choose—benefit from provisions of the EEC. It ought to benefit from the regional development fund and the social fund. The office in Wales ought to be able to explain how those benefits can be obtained.

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