§ Sir Paul Bryan asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the meetings of the European Community Finance Council on 17 September and 19 October.
§ Sir Geoffrey Howe:Both Councils took place under United Kingdom Presidency. I took the chair and the Financial Secretary represented the United Kingdom.
The September Council which was held in Brussels, reached agreement on a revised package of proposals to be put forward by the Commission at the resumed export credit consensus negotiations in Paris at the beginning of this month.
A common position was reached on the major outstanding issues for the renewal of the new Community instrument—the "Ortoli facility"—including a ceiling on lending of 1 billion ecus. The matter has since been referred to the European Parliament as part of the conciliation procedure.
The Council discussed a proposal by the Italian Government not to abolish its temporary import deposit scheme as originally planned but instead to phase it out gradually over six months. As a result of the representations made at the Council the Italian Government have agreed to phase out the scheme over a five month period and to exclude certain categories of goods from the scheme altogether.
170WOther matters discussed included the draft insurance services directive and the text of my Presidency speech at the IMF annual meeting.
The October Council, which was held in Luxembourg, also considered the draft insurance services directive. The Council held a general discussion of the 30 May mandate which allowed member States to outline their approach to the various issues involved. The Commission introduced its draft fifth medium term economic policy programme on the basis of which a preliminary exchange of views took place.
The Council established a draft supplementary budget No. 2 for 1981 which provided for a reduction of 724 million ecus in FEOGA appropriations, an increase of 40 million ecus for special food aid to the least developed countries, and took into account changes in the revenue estimates. The Council established a letter of amendment to the 1982 draft budget which provided for a decrease of 378.7 million ecus in the FEOGA estimates, and an increase of 365 million ecus to reflect the estimated effect on expenditure of the recent exchange rate realignments under the European monetary system.