HC Deb 30 January 1978 vol 943 cc32-6
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Frank Judd)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I will make a statement about business to be taken by Ministers of the European Community during February. The monthly written forecast was deposited on Thursday, 26th January.

At present three Council of Ministers meetings are proposed for February. Foreign Ministers will meet on 7th February, Agriculture Ministers on 13th and 14th February and Finance Ministers on 20th February.

Foreign Ministers are expected to consider a mandate for negotiations with Greece about customs union, the current position on the North-South dialogue, iron and steel imports, food aid, summertime, and trade relations with Cyprus and Japan. They may also consider dentists' qualifications and training.

Agriculture Ministers are expected to consider Mediterranean agriculture and resume their consideration of CAP prices for 1978–79.

Finance Ministers are expected to consider the budgetary implications of the 1978–79 agricultural price proposals and the draft co-insurance directive.

Mr. Hurd

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his statement. May I ask him to comment on the fact that he does not include in his statement any mention of further meetings of the Fisheries Ministers who are meeting today? This is a matter of great concern and anxiety to this House. Is he saying that there is not even a preliminary or provisional arrangement for further discussions should agreement not be reached at the current meeting?

Secondly, as regards the review of farm prices, the hon. Gentleman said that the Finance Ministers are expected to consider the budgetary implications of the next price review. I think that this happened last year but had not happened before. Can he confirm—this is important—that the Finance Ministers will be fully and equally involved with Ministers of Agriculture in working out the farm price review? Experience suggests that it is not sensible that three-quarters of the Community's budget should be settled by Ministers of Agriculture meeting without other Ministers.

Mr. Judd

The answer to the hon. Gentleman's first question is that we hope that the discussions on fisheries will move forward constructively, as my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said this afternoon, but if by some mischance we are not able to make the progress for which we are looking—and the House is aware how seriously the Government take their responsibilities in this respect—we shall have to look to continuing arrangements for further meetings in the months ahead.

I take the point made by the hon. Gentleman about the Finance Ministers. The financial consequences and implications of any price settlement are far-reaching for overall Government financial and budgetary policy. Finance Ministers will have a crucial part to play.

Mr. Christopher Price

Can my hon. Friend say a little more about the present crisis between the EEC and Cyprus, in particular on the matter of potatoes? Can he say how much the increase in tariff which the EEC is demanding on Cyprus potatoes, all of which come to Britain, is linked with our attitude towards the importation of French and Italian potatoes? Is my hon. Friend aware that if this issue is not solved it will sour relations between the EEC and Cyprus and will show that the EEC interferes not only with our fish but also with our chips?

Mr. Judd

I assure my hon. Friend that I am as worried about chips as I am about fish, but I can tell him that, as a result of the effective representations made by the Government of Cyprus and the strong representations made by our own Government, the Council of Ministers re-examined its position at its last meeting. The Commission has been told to go away and talk to Cyprus and come back with new proposals at its next meeting. I hope that that will enable us to move forward.

With regard to the anxieties in the Community about potatoes and exports to Britain. I can tell my hon. Friend that we are re-examining the situation.

Mr. Marten

May we have an assurance that the Government will do nothing to inhibit the importation of Cyprus sherry, for such an inhibition would affect the livelihood of many Cypriots working and toiling in the vineyards?

Secondly, what on earth has the training of dentists to do with Ministers of Foreign Affairs?

Mr. Judd

Councils of Ministers can sometimes be quite painful without toothache being added to the problem. I assure the hon. Gentleman that we are well aware of the consequences for the community in Cyprus of getting a satisfactory solution. It is a marginal problem for the Community, but it is almost a matter of life and death for many within Cyprus itself. Therefore, we have to take this matter seriously. There are mutual interests at stake, and sherry as it is enjoyed in the United Kingdom is one of the things that we take seriously.

I hope that the question of dentists will not take up a great deal of time in the Council of Ministers, but there is a point about considering whether directives should include the definition of an activity on which, evidently, member countries do not see eye to eye.

Mr. Faulds

If I am right in thinking that there is to be a meeting of Ministers on European political co-operation in Copenhagen on 13th and 14th February, will my hon. Friend see that at that meeting in Copenhagen there is a proper pursuit of the political aspects of the Euro-Arab dialogue which was initially launched in Copenhagen in November 1973 and which has not received the follow-up from European countries for which our Arab friends had hoped?

Mr. Judd

I assure my hon. Friend that we take the Euro-Arab dialogue seriously. We understand the anxieties of the Arabs about the many things that they would like to see covered. There are slight differences of emphasis about this, but my reading of the experience is that the Nine have moved forward fairly constructively and positively.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

Will the hon. Gentleman, at the Foreign Ministers' discussion of the North-South dialogue, invite his right hon. Friend to take with him the text of a speech, which both he and I heard, by Mr. Ramphal, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, in which he stressed the need for urgent action on this matter?

Will he also report to his European colleagues on the progress, or lack of same, on the Rhodesia talks, which are crucial to any North-South dialogue, and make it plain that we would be glad of help from our European colleagues as well as from Mr. Andrew Young in bringing these talks to a fruitful conclusion, including the internal dialogue?

Mr. Judd

I assure the hon. Gentleman that, on the Rhodesia issue, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary is at great pains to keep his colleagues in the EEC au fait with developments and fully in touch with Government analysis and thinking.

On the matter of the North-South dialogue, I agree that it was an impressive speech that he and I heard by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. It is a speech which no one who is interested in these matters can ignore. It reveals that the representatives of the Third world are increasingly talking not only about economic aspirations but about political objectives in the restructuring of the international community.

Mr. Ioan Evans

Can my hon. Friend say whether, at the meeting of Finance Ministers, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be raising our right to pay the temporary employment subsidy and take any other measures that the Government wish to take to deal with unemployment?

With regard to the Foreign Ministers' meeting, will the Government raise the question of the United Nations Year against Apartheid and urge the EEC to take action in this matter?

Mr. Judd

My hon. Friend knows that the Nine have taken seriously their responsibility towards the problem of apartheid. This has been manifested in the code of conduct which has been produced.

The answer to my hon. Friend's question about the temporary employment subsidy is that we are determined to work with all the vigour at our disposal to protect the scheme. As I have already said, I do not believe that anyone in the Commission would consider lightly the consequences of any action by the Commission that would aggravate the problem of unemployment in any member country, because that would not advance the cause of the EEC.

Mr. Speaker

I shall call the two hon. Members who have risen.

Mr. Biffen

Does the absence from the agenda for the Agriculture Ministers meeting of consideration of a sheepmeat regime mean that this proposal will now take a far lower priority in the Community's deliberations?

Mr. Judd

I gather that the term "regime" is not very popular in some sections of British public life. The absence of any reference to an effective system to deal with sheepmeat on this occasion illustrates that it is not a top priority issue.

Mr. Robert Hughes

There has been great appreciation in the House and in the country of what the Government are trying to achieve with regard to fishing, but the Commission's proposals fall short of the vital needs of both the inshore and deep water fishing industries. In those circumstances, will my hon. Friend convey to all quarters of the EEC that no agreement on fishing can be acceptable until it is approved by this House?

Mr. Judd

I assure my hon. Friend that there is not a Minister in the Community, in the Council of Foreign Ministers or among the Agriculture Ministers who is not aware of the strength of feeling on this issue in all parts of the House and that that cuts across the lines which have characterised the difference of opinion within this House about other dimensions of European politics. We have argued on every possible occasion that if we are putting in 60 per cent. of the resources in the European pool of fish, any effective policy must reflect that if it is to be acceptable to our industry.