§ 3.2 p.m.
§ LORD DRUMALBYNMy 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 what decisions were reached at the EFTA Council meeting held in Bergen on May 12 and 13 regarding industrial standards.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS AND FOR THE COLONIES (LORD BESWICK)My Lords, Ministers representing the member countries at the Bergen meeting of the EFTA Council adopted a recommendation made by the United Kingdom that efforts to secure early agreement on standards in the 5 appropriate European and international organisations concerned should be strongly supported, and every effort made to ensure that these standards are adopted nationally without deviation.
§ LORD DRUMALBYNMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord how much further this carries matters? Was this not already being done? And what additional effort is now being made to secure greater uniformity of industrial standards, certainly among European countries?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, first I think it is generally agreed that the resolution, which is accepted by the member States, will carry things further forward, in so far as each member Government will now be required to give a political directive to its respective national-standard bodies to ensure observation of the standards adopted by the international bodies to which I referred. As for the securing of Continent-wide standards, I think that what the noble Lord probably has in his mind is the possibility of the European Community countries having separate standards, and it seems to me that any tendency in this direction will be averted, if we can get the adoption throughout the Continent of the standards already laid down by CEN, CENEL and the other international bodies.