§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEMy Lords, with the leave of the House, at a convenient moment after 3.30 p.m. my noble friend Lord Harris of Greenwich will repeat a Statement being made in another place on broadcasting. May I also say that my right honourable friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is circulating in the Official Report of another place an account of the discussion at yesterday's Foreign Affairs Council. With the leave of the House, I will arrange for the account also to be published in our Official Report.
Following is the account of the discussion:
The Council took the formal decision fixing the 7th to the 10th of June 1979 as the date for the first direct elections to the European Assembly.The Presidency reported to the Council on the way follow-up work to the conclusions reached at the European Council in Bremen had been allocated among the responsible Community organs.The Presidency and the Commission reported on the outcome of the Bonn Summit; and satisfaction was expressed with the results.The Council agreed procedural arrangements for further discussion of problems affecting the Community steel industry. Progress will be reviewed in October. There will be urgent bilateral discussions between the Commission and Member States on difficulties which have arisen in present arrangements for the control of steel imports.The Council reached provisional agreement, subject to a United Kingdom reserve, on the text of a Resolution on the shipbuilding industry.The Council took note of a progress report from the Commission on the GATT Multilateral Trade Negotiations and discussed points to be borne in mind in the next stages of the negotiations.The Presidency reported briefly on the outcome of the formal opening of the renegotiation of the Lomé Convention which took place in Brussels on 24th July.The Council emphasised the importance which they attach to reaching a new agreement with Yugoslavia. It was agreed that further proposals from the Commission would be considered after the summer break.864Having received satisfactory assurances from the Commission that they would take action to ensure that the agreed ceilings on low cost textile imports would be strictly enforced and that new restraints will be imposed promptly when the need arises, the Secretary of State for Trade accepted the arrangements negotiated with Portugal, Greece and Spain.Under other business the United Kingdom welcomed the agreement reached in the Agriculture Council, which will allow us to resume importing beef from the southern area of Botswana, and urged that imports should be permitted soon from other areas which are free of foot and mouth disease.In the margin of the meeting there was a discussion of a number of matters arising in political co-operation.The nine Foreign Ministers issued a declaration on Namibia noting that the way is now open to an early internationally acceptable solution and declaring their readiness to respond to a request to help support the economic well-being of an independent Namibia.My right honourable friend raised the Code of Conduct for companies with interests in South Africa. He emphasised the importance of instituting as soon as possible national arrangements to ensure complaince with the Code and full reporting by companies comparable to those set out in the White Paper Cmnd. 7233 and its Annexes.