§ Mr. DevlinTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the latest meeting of the European Community's Economic and Finance Council.
§ Mr. RyderThe ECOFIN Council met in Brussels on 12 February. I represented the United Kingdom. The revised Financial Regulation which sets the rules for implementing the European Community Budget was agreed and will be adopted shortly. There was an initial discussion of the 341W procedures for multilateral surveillance of member states' economies during stage one of EMU. Further discussion will be held at a future ECOFIN.
It was agreed that a medium term loan facility for up to five years should be made available to Hungary for the ECU equivalent of $1 billion. The Community has decided to invite other industrial countries to associate themselves with this facility. The first tranche of this loan will be the ECU equivalent of $400 million and will be available once a stand-by arrangement has been agreed with the International Monetary Fund. This first tranche will be guaranteed by the Community budget and a supplementary budget will soon be adopted to provide this guarantee.
Finally, the Council took note of a statement by the Commission urging early agreement to three tax measures which have been designed to encourage cross border co-operation in tax affairs.