§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will provide details of the four occasions on which Her Majesty's Government have invoked the Luxembourg compromise at meetings of EEC Councils of Ministers; if he will further state dates on which the Ministers concerned advised the Presidents of the Councils in question that the Luxembourg compromise was being invoked; and what was the outcome of the use of the procedure in each case.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThere have been two occasions on which the United Kingdom has utilised the machinery of the Luxembourg compromise; and a number of other occasions when the machinery has been used, but not at our instigation:
On 25 July 1978, the United Kingdom asked for a vote to be deferred in the Fisheries Council because Commission proposals for the conclusion of fisheries agreements with Sweden and the Faroes affected our "fundamental national interests". No vote was held.
On 18 May 1982 at the Agriculture Council, the United Kingdom representative asked for a vote on the annual price-fixing to be deferred because the United Kingdom had been unable to secure satisfactory decisions on the overall Community budget. We were not supported on that occasion by enough member states to defer a decision because others took the view that the compromise could only be invoked in support of a national interest directly related to the subject under discussion.
§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the number of occasions on which the Luxembourg compromise has been formally invoked by each member state of the EEC, respectively, since 1973; and if he will publish a table showing the dates on which the procedure has been formally notified to the President of the respective Council of Ministers by the nations concerned.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber (Sir Russell Johnston) on 5 February at column 178.