§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why the English translation of the secondary legislation decision 71/395/ EEC of November, 1971, Commercial Policy is printed together with foreign languages in addition to English; and what are the estimated costs for printing in languages other than English.
§ Mr. RipponThe annex to this instrument, consisting of Common Customs Tariff tables, was reproduced by a photocopying process from pages of the official Journal in which the necessary English wording was then inserted. The cost by this process was less than would have been the production of a purely English version.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 34 of Decision 72/84/EEC Secondary Legislation on pigmeat dated 13th January, 1972, became available;
(2) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 34 of Regulation 125W 2/72/EEC of 30th December, 1971, of the Secondary Legislation on pigmeat became available;
(3) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 21 of Regulation 2728/71/EEC of 20th December, 1971, Secondary Legislation on cereals, became available;
(4) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 3 Decision 72/ 106/ECSC of 31st January, 1972, on the appointment of representative organisations chosen to establish lists of candidates for the Consultative Committee of the European Coal and Steel Community became available;
(5) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 3 Regulation 489/72/Euratom of 7th March, 1972, on the amending conditions applicable to remuneration and social security for members of the staff of the Joint Nuclear Research Centre employed in the Nether lands became available;
(6) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 13 Decision 72/ 135/EEC of 7th March, 1972, on the appointment of members of the Joint Advisory Committee on Social Questions arising in Transport became available;
(7) whether he will give the date when the English text of Part 17, Regulation 2727/71/EEC of 20th December, 1971, on agriculture consultative committees and general matters became available.
§ Mr. RipponThe English texts of these instruments were published by Her Majesty's Stationary Office on 2nd June and became available to hon. Members through the Vote Office on that day.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he is aware that the Part 2 Secondary Legislation Commercial Policy Devision 71/395/EEC was incorrectly printed and published with the date September, 1971; why it took him until May, 1972, to print a correction slip giving the date of November; and how this error occurred.
§ Mr. RipponThe error, which is regretted, was a typing error which occurred during the preparation for publication of the instrument in question. It was noticed before publication of the instrument, and a correction slip was prepared and published together with the translation.
126W
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will give details of the total number of corrections which have, up until 10th June, 1972, had to be made in the printed details of the Secondary Legislation of the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. RipponCorrections to the 42 volumes of English texts of Community secondary legislation made prior to 10th November, 1971, were set out in a volume published on 13th May. With regard to the 83 English texts of Community secondary legislation made since 10th November, 1971, which have so far been published, one correction has been made. This is the correction to Decision 71/395/ EEC refered to in another of the hon. Member's Questions today. A minor error in Regulation 2732/71/EEC was referred to in the hon. Member's Question on 5th June.—[Vol. 838, c. 20–21.]
§ Mr. Johnasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is he will make a statement on the implications, for regional policy, of the European Economic Community Commission's ruling as to the amount and type of aid which Belgium should be allowed to implement.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantI have been asked to reply.
As I understand the position, the Belgian economic expansion law of 1970 permitted regional aid to be given in 41 out of 43 local government districts of that country. The Commission doubted whether aid extended so widely could be justified and feared that it might distort competition within the Common Market.
After a prolonged period of discussion with the Belgian Government, the Commission has now asked that regional aids in Belgium be limited to 28 districts.
I am satisfied that there is nothing in the circumstances of the case which in any way prejudices our own ability to arrive at a satisfactory solution for our Assisted Areas within the terms of Article 154 of the Treaty of Accession.
§ Mr. Johnasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consideration is being given by the European Economic Community Commission to help for ailing firms; and what 127W effect the implementation of recommendations is likely to have upon British policy in this sphere.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantI have been asked to reply.
I am not aware, that the Commission is considering any such proposal; the second part of the Question does not therefore arise.