§ 3.20 p.m.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions the Foreign Ministers of the EEC countries have met to discuss political co-operation outside the Treaties since 1st January 1973; how often reports of their conclusions have been made to Parliament; whether regular reports can now be made whenever important conclusions have been reached; and whether they will now make a report on the recent meeting in Dublin with special reference to the Conference on Security and Co-operation and to the search for a peace formula in the Middle East.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, Community Foreign Ministers normally meet four times a year in the political co-operation framework. They have also had a number of informal meetings on other occasions. The Second Report on European Political Co-operation on Foreign Policy was presented to Parliament in 1973. My right honourable friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary has given an account of political co-operation on a number of occasions in another place. The most recent was in the report on developments between March and October 1974 which was included in the White Paper on developments in the European Communities. I can assure the House of the Government's intention that when there are conclusions of suffi- 408 cient importance a Statement should be made.
At the meeting in Dublin the Foreign Ministers agreed to continue to concert their positions on the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. The search for a Middle East peace formula was not discussed at that meeting, but preparation for the Euro-Arab dialogue was discussed.
Lord CHELWOODMy Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for that reply. Will he say whether, in his opinion, the full significance of the decision which was taken by the nine Heads of Government at the Paris Summit meeting to adopt common positions on all aspects of international affairs that affect the Community is widely understood? If that is so, does it not follow that while some diplomatic decisions are obviously best followed up without public debate, others could, and should, be conveyed to this Parliament?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, I can give the House that assurance. Progress has been made in concerting action and attitudes. As the noble Lord has rightly said, naturally there are some bilateral contacts and negotiations which we must reserve to ourselves, as other individual members of the Nine do in their case.
§ Lord GLADWYNMy Lords, are the Government aware that the Political Committee of the European Parliament, upon which I am happy to say that this Parliament is well represented, has a quarterly confidential exchange of views with the President of the Council of Foreign Ministers? Are they also aware that only yesterday we had a long and profitable discussion with him on the results of the last Dublin meeting and, indeed, on the possible manner in which the forthcoming Dublin Summit might be conducted?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, I am aware of these exchanges and am very glad to have my feeling confirmed that they are both profitable and useful. I have no doubt at all that these exchanges can be very useful indeed, both to the Community and to member countries.
§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, will the noble Lord agree that 409 the reservation to the Government of the decision to make disclosures when, in the judgment of the Government, they are of suffcient importance, reserves an unwarranted power to the Executive and could generate suspicion that the Executive sometimes hides its light under a bushel and that we are not allowed to know what is going on? Could not the Government be more forthcoming about these meetings?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, I do not think it necessarily follows that the Government would refuse to be forthcoming about important matters. In any case, this House has ways of reminding the Government of their duty and of indicating to them what it considers to be important. However, may I repeat that the attitude of the Government is to place before this and the other House the proper report of any matters of substance and of importance.
§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, would the noble Lord go a stage further and say whether the Government would be prepared to place in the Library, or to make available in other ways, an account of the speeches made by British Ministers at the Council of Ministers?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, Council meetings are necessarily confidential. They are best reported by agreement in the Council as to what should be made public. This is frequently done in one way or another. I could not give a blanket assurance on that point.
§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, is it not the case that other Ministers attending the Council give out copies of their speeches?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, the noble Lord has asked me for a blanket assurance and I have been unable to give it. Information is, of course, made available in one way or another and our aim is to make as much information available as promptly as possible.
§ Lord SHINWELLMy Lords, am I to understand from what my noble friend has said in reply to the several questions which have been raised by noble Lords opposite, that one of the countries which is concerned in seeking to secure a solu- 410 tion to the Middle East problem is the Eire Government? If so, would it not be more appropriate if we tried to solve the Irish problem before we sought to solve the problem in the Middle East?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, we all have our problems. Experience of these problems in one part of the world is probably useful in helping to solve similar problems in another part of the world.
§ Lord LLOYD of KILGERRANMy Lords, while not wishing to inhibit in any way the meetings of Foreign Ministers, particularly in the political co-operation framework, to use the noble Lord's phrase, may I ask whether this political co-operation framework is within or with-out the framework of the Rome Treaty?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, it derives indirectly from the basic Treaty. It is the constitutional mechanism for consultation. For meetings of the Council of Ministers relating to political affairs, energy, and ad hoc matters, the basis is the Rome Treaty.