§ Mr. FrenchTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish a statement on the outcome of the Foreign Affairs Council on 4 November.
§ Mr. HurdA meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council took place in Brussels on 4 November. My hon. Friend the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and I represented the United Kingdom.
The Council issued a statement reconfirming its commitment to a substantial, balanced and global conclusion of the Uruguay round this year. It urged the Commission to make effective use of every opportunity to achieve progress in the negotiations. In particular the Council drew attention to the need to make good use of the forthcoming EC/US summit on 9 November to narrow differences between the EC and United States in the interests of a successful completion of the round.
The Council reviewed the situation in Yugoslavia and agreed a package of measures subject to a political decision by EC Ministers today. The measures comprise suspension of the EC/Yugoslavia trade and co-operation agreement and of Yugoslavia's inclusion in the EC's PHARE programme, and exclusion of Yugoslavia from the generalised system of preferences and from participation in ministerial meetings of the Group of 24. The Council also agreed in principle that any restrictive measures toward Yugoslavia as a whole should be accompanied by positive measures towards those republics co-operating with the peace process. There was agreement in principle that the United Nations Security Council should be invited to examine measures to tighten the arms embargo and to consider an oil embargo.
301WThe Council discussed Cambodia in the light of the successful outcome of the Paris conference and invited the Commission to make proposals on future Community relations.
The Council reviewed the draft European coal and steel community protocol in the association agreement negotiations with Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland and decided to remit the question to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for further examination.
An EC/Jordan Co-operation Council took place after the Foreign Affairs Council. A lunch between EC and Arab Maghreb Union Foreign Ministers was held in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council. There was no agreement to any change to existing EC measures against Libya.