§ Mr. Marlowasked the Prime Minister whether the ceiling on United Kingdom net contribution suggested at the Luxembourg conference of £325 million assumed that the benefit of monetary compensatory amounts on trade between the United Kingdom and other European Economic Community countries accrue to the United Kingdom.
§ The Prime MinisterAt present we have a positive MCA for milk products and only a small negative MCA for other products, so the effect on the calculations of the method of constructing MCAs would be likely to be small in the current year.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Prime Minister what arguments were put forward by European Heads of Government to suggest that the United Kingdom's net contribution to the EEC budget should be as high as £325 million per year.
§ The Prime MinisterAfter the Dublin European Council in November 1979 I made it clear that, in order to achieve a genuine compromise, we were willing to be a modest net contributor to the Community budget. At Luxembourg we discussed what a reasonable level of net contribution might be. A number of proposals, supported by differing arguments, were advanced during the discussions. Amongst the proposals the lowest sum was for £325 million in 1980. The
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PLACES AVAILABLE IN LOCAL AUTHORITY RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION FOR THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED * Year 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Clwyd … 86 86 124 94 80 Dyfed … 41 41 41 41 41 Gwent … 75 76 71 100 95 Gwynedd … 20 48 48 63 83 Mid Glamorgan … 70 96 96 117 143 Powys … — — 20 44 53 South Glamorgan … 115 114 120 125 135 West Glamorgan … 34 38 38 38 38 Wales … 441 499 558 622 668 * Places in local authority staffed and unstaffed homes at 31 March of each year. Includes places in homes which cater for both the mentally ill and mentally handicapped. problem which prevented agreement was how much we should pay in succeeding years.