Joint Policy Commitments (Hansard, 14 November 1984)

§ 57. Mr. Skinner
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with European Economic Community Government's Foreign Ministers regarding joint policy commitments; and if he will make a statement.

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
Community Foreign Ministers last met at the regular Foreign Affairs Council on 22 and 23 October. A special Foreign Affairs Council met yesterday to discuss the enlargement of the Community. As usual in the Council, discussions were aimed at reaching agreement on matters of Community policy.

§ Mr. Skinner
Did the Council discuss the disposal of the food mountains? When the right hon. and learned Gentleman next meets his counterparts, will he tell them that for the past decade or more people in this place—the so-called opinion-formers from the middle classes from both sides of the House, but especially from the Social Democratic and Liberal parties — have always told people that if only Britain was in the Common Market we could look after the starving millions in Africa and elsewhere? What happened to all those dreams? Where are the visionaries now? Are there not literally thousands of young children in Ethiopia, Sudan and elsewhere, with pot bellies and matchstick legs? Is not Latin America up to its neck in debt?
What happened to all those dreams for the Common Market? Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman ask the Community to dispose of the food surpluses and feed those hungry mouths rather than send the food elsewhere?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
No one should doubt the Government's concern to do everything possible to meet the problems of poverty throughout the world. The hon. Gentleman's perception of almost all the foundations of his question is fatally flawed in thousands of respects. The Community, through co-operation, has been able to generate a substantial increase in food production. It has been able to finance from scratch the Lorne programme of aid to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, and intends to continue in that direction. It would be a great deal more helpful if the hon. Gentleman would begin to discard some of his offensive and ridiculous illusions.

§ Mr. Rowe
Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that one of the most important joint policy commitments is that to a genuine common market in services? We are encouraged by what he said recently in Bonn about establishing that market. Can he tell us how much further he hopes to go in the near future?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
My hon. Friend is right to emphasise the importance of the establishment of a 678 genuine common market in services as well as in goods. We have been laying emphasis on the need to achieve that — for example, for insurance, road haulage and air transport services. We shall continue to press the case in all the Council's dealings with these matters—not least because it is only if we achieve a continental-wide market for services as well as for goods that the Community can make the contribution to reducing unemployment throughout the Community which we all believe it can make.

Mr. J. Enoch Powell
How could the Foreign Secretary prevail upon himself on his recent visit to Germany to mislead the credulous and ignorant Germans by assuring them on what he knows well is not the case, namely that there is preponderant enthusiasm in Britain for membership of the EEC?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
That is because I believe that the cause which the right hon. Gentleman has pursued with such tenacity over the years in the opposite direction is one which is receiving diminishing support.

§ Mr. Dykes
Will my right hon. and learned Friend pursue energetically with his colleagues the excellent proposals in the Fontainebleau document submitted by the Prime Minister dealing with vital matters of joint working, including majority voting on major decisions and greater political integration?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
We attach importance to the Community operating its institutions in such a fashion as to achieve decisions expeditiously, and not have important policy changes of the sort referred to by my hon. Friend impeded by that cause. We do not support any changes in the structure of the treaty on voting procedures, and neither the Fontainebleau nor the Genscher-Colornbo agreements envisage any change in that respect

§ Mr. Robin Cook
May I return to the original question of my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner)? Does the Foreign Secretary not recognise that a public who are deeply moved by the plight of those caught in the Ethiopian famine view with bewilderment the fact that the EEC, which has the capacity to eliminate the famine, has done so little so late? Does he accept that the amount of grain so far released by the EEC is barely 1 per cent. of surplus stocks and less than one tenth of the amount which the EEC is currently converting into animal feedstuffs for Europe? Does he understand that it is offensive that the Government should announce this week increased expenditure on the storage of surplus grain brought forth by the common agricultural policy although it is cheaper to ship the surplus grain to Ethopia than to store it in Europe? What will he do to press his colleagues within Europe to respond with more generosity and more humanity before it is too late to respond?

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe
The hon. Gentleman fails again to perceive the issue as a whole. It is necessary to overcome the Community's capacity to generate surplus food in many directions, at great cost, which cannot be disposed of in any way. That is one of the policies which the Government have been fighting and will continue to fight. It is a difficult one to sustain. There are many inside and outside the House who recognise that the Government have been taking the lead in pressing the Community to expand its aid programme to famine-ridden areas. Since 679 the beginning of October £35 million-worth of aid has been given in that way, substantially as a result of the lead given by the Government.