Council of Ministers (Hansard, 25 January 1984)

HC Deb 25 January 1984 vol 52 cc912-5 912

§ 45. Mr. Neil Hamilton
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next expects to attend the Council of Ministers of the European Community.

§ 46. Mr. Fallon
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next expects to attend a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the European Community.

§ 49. Sir David Price
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what further progress has been made at ministerial level towards an acceptable solution to the current budget crisis in the European Economic Community.

§ 50. Mr. Skinner
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what further discussions he has had with other Ministers in the European Economic Community about the future of the Community; and if he will make a statement.

§ 51. Mr. Lofthouse
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made to secure the conditions he outlined on 1 December, Official Report, c. 1014, before any agreement is considered to increase the Community's own resources.

§ 53. Mr. Teddy Taylor
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in discussions on European Economic Community reform since the Athens summit.

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I expect to attend the next Foreign Affairs Council which is due to meet on 20 and 21 February.
I attended the first Foreign Affairs Council under the French Presidency on Monday. The French Foreign Minister said that it was the aim of the Presidency to reach agreement on the main issues in the post-Stuttgart negotiations at the March European Council. The negotiations will be carried forward in a series of bilateral discussions, at a special meeting of Foreign Ministers on 18 and 19 February and in the Foreign Affairs Council as necessary. Specialist Councils will handle those issues which fall directly to them.
I stressed the need to make substantial progress in the hope of reaching agreement by March. I emphasised the need for detailed work to be done on the difficult issues in the negotiation: control of agricultural and other spending and budget imbalances, as well as the future development of Community policies. These issues could be handled separately in detail but needed to be drawn together so that decisions could be taken by Heads of Government on all the measures together.
I am arranging for a note on the other issues discussed at the Council to be published in the Official Report.

§ Mr. Hamilton
Will my right hon. and learned Friend be explaining to his colleagues at those meetings the growing impatience in Britain at the slow progress being made towards a solution to the budget dispute? Will he be announcing, albeit privately, that his freedom to 913 manoeuvre in negotiations has been limited by the growing opposition on the Government Benches to linking a solution to the budget problem to an increase in own resources?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I have made it plain throughout the discussions that have been going on since Stuttgart last summer that there is a need for urgency in reaching a conclusion to that agenda. I have made it plain publicly and privately that we are all impatient to see a conclusion of the negotiations so that the Community can concentrate on a wider range of business, including new policy. The fact remains that, as at Stuttgart, the question whether there should be an increase in own resources is connected with the proposition that we there laid down that there must be effective control over agriculture and other spending and an equitable financial arrangement, and that there can be no increase in own resources unless both those requirements are met.

§ Mr. Fallon
Does my right hon. and learned Friend accept the case for a clear distinction between the Council's legislative and deliberative functions? Can he reassure the House that progress has been made towards the completion of the internal market and the elimination of non-tariff barriers?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I think that there is reason to be impatient about the progress towards the establishment of an internal common market, including removing non-tariff barriers within the Community. I believe that it is important that we should press ahead with what are known as new policies in that respect and which are at the foundation of the original concept of the Common Market.

§ Mr. Skinner
Is it not ironic that, 11 or 12 years ago, when Britain was being taken into the Common Market by the last leader of the Tory party and the social dreamers who sometimes inhabit this Bench they did it on the basis of saving a sinking pound, rescuing the Common Market and solving all the problems of the Third world? After little more than a decade the Common Market is up to the neck in debt. The International Monetary Fund is cadging money from the United States. The Export Credits Guarantees Department is a busted flush. Right around the world financial institutions do not know how to find the money for 40 countries which are rescheduling their debt. Does it not prove to the British people that it has been a waste of time? What the Foreign Secretary ought to be doing is telling them—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This is unfair to other hon. Members.

§ Mr. Skinner
Has the Foreign Secretary got the question?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
The hon. Gentleman has exposed a large number of propositions for brief examination. At the conclusion I must find that he is totally bankrupt of constructive ideas.

§ Mr. Lofthouse
Does the Secretary of State expect any progress at the meeting in March to which he referred? Does he think that, because the different sides are irreconcilable, there will be no progress? If this is the case, what will the Government's attitude be at that time?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
If there were to be no progress at the completion of the negotiations on which we embarked at Stuttgart, for the overwhelming body of opinion in the 914 House, and certainly in the country, that would be a serious state of affairs. I believe that overwhelmingly people recognise that progress, particularly in the economic field, depends upon our maintaining the coherence and cohesion of Community institutions. That is why, as I made plain earlier, we must emphasise not just the urgency but the importance of moving towards agreement on these matters at the earliest possible stage.

§ Mr. Taylor
Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that some of us who have supported the Government—[HON. MEMBERS: "When?"]. Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that some of us who supported the Government last week in some unpopular but necessary measures to curb expenditure and to stop waste will feel let down if, in trying to solve the budget problem. the Government agree to vast additional public resources and public spending going into economic nonsenses, such as a Channel tunnel? Can my right hon. and learned Friend give us a clear assurance that there will be no question of the Government agreeing to increased resources, giving us in exchange a half share in a white elephant?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
The linkage with an increase in own resources is with the two propositions I have already announced. We stand by the two conditions laid down at Stuttgart — effective control of agricultural and other spending and equitable financing. There are many reasons for being wary about the implications of the Channel tunnel. It is certainly something which I, for one, would want to consider very carefully before regarding it as a proposition to be accepted with enthusiasm.

§ Mr. Roy Hughes
When the Foreign Secretary meets the Ministers, will he be more mundane and convey to them the concern expressed in steelmaking communities throughout the country about the threats from the Common Market to make further cuts in our steelmaking capacity? Will he tell them that our industry has already been cut to the bone whereas other Common Market countries have not adhered to the directives of that organisation?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry emphasises that point with the utmost clarity at the Council when this matter arises. It is also worth reflecting that our membership of the Community has enabled us to obtain protection from some of the disadvantages of world economic conditions that would have arisen had we been alone. It is also worth remembering that one of the features which add to the problems of the world's steel community flows directly from the high level of the United States federal budget deficit which we were talking about some time ago—the high level of the dollar.

§ Mr. Jim Spicer
Following the free elections in Turkey and the restoration of a civilian Government, with the support of the vast majority of the people of that country, will my right hon. and learned Friend press for the restoration of all rights for the Turkish people under the association agreement when the Council of Ministers next meets in political co-operation?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I shall certainly take account of what my hon. Friend has said. As he knows, therewas some discussion earlier today about the balance between progress towards human rights and the current position in Turkey.

915

§ Mr. Hardy
Instead of preparing complacently platitudinous answers, will the right hon. and learned Gentleman reflect upon the fact that the principle achievement of the EEC in recent months has been the classification of the feathered hyacinth bulb as a vegetable?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
I am impressed by the hon. Gentleman's astuteness in observing that.

§ Mr. Bottomley
My right hon. and learned Friend was quoted on Monday as saying that the EEC was stony broke and in a state of semi-paralysis. Does he expect that state to be changed in any way by the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament or the Commission, and is there anything that this House can do to help?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
If we are to achieve the necessary reforms to deal with the problems which we have been discussing, the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament all have a part to play.

§ Mr. Robin Cook
Will the Foreign Secretary try to achieve some sense of urgency? Is he aware that in time, if not in geography, we are now half way between the Athens and Brussels summits? If, as he says, the Community is in a state of semi-paralysis—a description more appropriate to the Foreign Office under the right hon. and learned Gentleman—why does he not admit to the House that there is no serious prospect of reaching any agreement which would justify his inviting the House to vote more tax resources for a spendthrift Community?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
If the hon. Gentleman had listened to my original reply he would know that at Monday's meeting I stressed the need for substantial progress, in the hope of reaching agreement by March, and that I emphasised the need for detailed work to be done. Throughout that meeting and many others I have done all that I can, as has my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, to stress the sense of urgency that is needed. If we achieve an appropriate settlement of the budgetary problem and a proper mechanism to control imbalances, Britain will pay less, despite an increase in own resources.

Following is the note: Foreign Affairs Council 23 January 1984 Other issues discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council which met in Brussels on 23 January and at which I represented the United Kingdom. In response to a suggestion from several member countries of the European Free Trade Association, the Council agreed to propose to EFTA that there should be a joint ministerial meeting in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council to be held in Luxembourg on 9 April. The Council reviewed the current state of the negotiations on a successor to the present Lomé convention, in preparation for the EC/ACP ministerial meeting in 9–10 February. There was a discussion of ESPRIT (European Stategic Programme for Research in Information Technology) and it was agreed that Ministers would consider the programme further at the Research Council on 28 February. There was also an inconclusive discussion of energy measures. It was agreed that Energy Ministers should examine the proposals again next month. At a ministerial conference in the margins of the Council a Community declaration on agricultural structures was presented to the Portuguese.