§ Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he has so far taken to secure the implementation of article 138(3) of the treaty of Rome; and what further steps he plans to take.
§ Mr. RifkindThe European Parliament drew up proposals for a uniform electoral procedure in March 1982. These were considered by the Council of Ministers on a number of occasions, but in view of the number of difficult problems which remained to be resolved, the Council concluded that it would not be possible to reach agreement on a uniform procedure in time for the 1984 elections. Member states undertook to do their best to reach agreement in time for the 1989 elections. It will be for the Presidency of the day to decide when the negotiations on this question should be resumed.