HC Deb 02 July 1985 vol 82 c86W
Mr. Rost

asked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will make a statement about the meeting of the European Communities Council of Energy Ministers on 20 June.

Mr. Peter Walker

My hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Mr. Goodlad) and I represented the United Kingdom at the Energy Ministers Council on 20 June.

British industry will be able to benefit from a share in European Community aid worth some £300 million to be allocated to developing new ways of producing energy and using energy more efficiently, and to developing improved oil technology.

The Council agreed to provide £216 million to extend the Community's energy demonstration projects scheme for four more years from the end of this year when the scheme was due to expire. In the past British firms have gained around £55 million from the scheme, and I expect them to bid strongly in the coming years.

The Council also agreed to provide £84 million over four years for projects to develop new technology in the hydrocarbons sector. This will be available after the current round of bids ends this year. British firms have received £57 million under the present scheme since it began in 1973, and the expected technological advances on the UKCS in the coming years should boost our prospects for additional Community aid.

Ministers held another discussion on the growth in trade of refined oil products. We agreed that additional supplies from the middle east and north Africa could be absorbed into world markets, provided that their impact was riot concentrated on particular regions. The aim should be to maintain or create conditions where the additional imports would fall equitably in all markets.

Commissioner Mosar said that he hoped shortly to table a new Commission proposal to govern the payment of aids by member states to their coal industries. I emphasised that such a proposal would have to recognise the different industrial, employment and social conditions pertaining in each of the member states concerned, and leave to those member states the task of devising arrangements best suited to their own situations.