HC Deb 29 January 1987 vol 109 cc472-3
3. Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made in resolving the financial problems of the European Economic Community since the last meeting of the Council of Finance Ministers; and if he will make a statement.

The Minister of State, Treasury (Mr. Peter Brooke)

Since the last ECOFIN, the Agriculture Council has agreed important reforms in the milk and beef sectors. The Budget Council has rejected the Parliament's proposals for exceeding the maximum rate of increase in non-obligatory expenditure in 1987.

Mr. Taylor

As the indications are that the Common Market is likely to exceed its legal spending limit by £3 billion this year, can my hon. Friend explain how Britain will obtain the payment of its corrected rebate for 1986, which he has said is a substantial sum, without the supplementary budget that we were promised would not happen this year?

Mr. Brooke

A substantial amount of the abatement is already in the existing figures. In forthcoming budgets we have secured that the amount which remains due to us for 1986 will be in the main budget for 1988. Under treaty law it could be as late as the supplementary budget in 1988, but we have secured it earlier than that.

Mr. Dykes

As all member states of the Community have deficits which total about £100 million, is it not a little irrational and hysterical for certain hon. Members to go on about a minuscule de facto deficit to the European Community, bearing in mind the fact that the United States farm support system is much more wasteful and expensive? I believe that if the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Sparkbrook (Mr. Hattersley) were here, he would agree with that.

Mr. Brooke

We shall not know until the summer the deficit which may have been carried over from 1986. As to the larger figures which my hon. Friend the Member for Southend, East (Mr. Taylor) quoted, money beyond that which has been authorised cannot be expended, and the Commission is obliged to bring forward recommendations about how it should be reined back.

Mr. Skinner

Is the Minister aware that the proMarketeers, such as himself and his hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. Dykes), sound as though they are parodying the old phraseology of Churchill—that we will fight them on the beef mountains and swim in the wine lakes until we drown. It is stretching things a bit when it has cost Britain more than £6 billion to be a member of this club. I can join the miners' welfare at Derbyshire for 4s 4d.

Mr. Brooke

The language of the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) is less memorable than that of Sir Winston Churchill. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for his achievements in reining back expenditure, which he secured in December.