§ Mr. Formanasked the Minister of Overseas Development, whether the allocation of European Development Fund funds to African. Caribbean and Pacific States, as set out in Article 2 of the Amending Agreement, Command Paper No. 6907, imposes a permanent or a temporary pattern on the balance between grants, loans, high capital and State transfers; and, if not, under what conditions and in what ways changes will be made.
§ Mrs. HartArticle 42 of the Lomé Convention lays down the respective totals for loans, risk capital and the provision for Stabex transfers. These totals, together with those allotted for the overseas countries and territories—the dependencies of Community member States—in the internal financing agreement, are changed when an overseas country or territory, on becoming independent, accedes to the Convention, the first being increased and the second reduced.
Where a State other than an ex-dependency of a Community member State accedes to the Convention there is a presumption that the funds made available under it will be increased, since Article 90 lays down that new accessions shall not adversely affect the advantages accruing to existing ACP signatories.