HL Deb 16 May 1962 vol 240 cc620-1

2.21 p.m.

LORD CASEY

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they believe that, if and when the United Kingdom joins the European Common Market, the entry of the airlines of the Common Market countries into the European Air Union will be hastened; and in this event, what would be the effect upon the current association between B.O.A.C., Air India International and QANTAS in the tripartite agreement on the London-Singapore-Australia air route.]

THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD MILLS)

My Lords, Air Union, as at present proposed, would be an organisation formally separate from the Common Market and the planned membership does not as yet include all the Common Market airlines. It is not, I think, really possible at this stage to assess the effect on Air Union if the United Kingdom joined the Common Market. Any question of our airlines' joining it or being associated with it would be an extremely complex one, to be examined very closely by all concerned before even tentative conclusions could be reached. British Overseas Airways Corporation's current associations with Commonwealth airlines, which are valued highly both here and, we believe, in the Commonwealth, are one of the important factors in this question, and I can assure the noble Lord that no steps would be taken in the directions he indicates without close consultation with the Commonwealth interests concerned

LORD CASEY

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Mills, for his reply. In the light of his reply, perhaps I might be allowed to pursue the matter a little further on the same lines, and to ask whether he believes there is any substantial risk of eventual conflict between membership by a United Kingdom airline of European Air Union and membership of the existing tripartite agreement on the so-called Kangaroo route. Further, would the noble Lord tend to believe that entry by the United Kingdom into the European Common Market would, or at least might, facilitate the entry of European airlines to, say, London Airport and so possibly onwards from London Airport to other points overseas—for instance, to New York or possibly on to the so-called Kangaroo air route to or towards Australia.

LORD MILLS

My Lords, in answer to the noble Lord's first supplementary question, so little is known about the conditions of possible United Kingdom participation in an alliance which is still not in being, that the question can be only a hypothetical one. It is much too early to assume that any Commonwealth civil aviation interests would be prejudiced. The answer to the noble Lord's second supplementary question is "No," my Lords. Civil aviation is outside the Treaty of Rome and membership of the Common Market does not in itself alter the civil aviation relations to the companies concerned.

LORD CASEY

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord.