§ Mr. Denzil DaviesTo ask the secretary of state for Wales if he will list, together with respective dates the EC meetings held in Brussels which were attended by senior officials from the Welsh Office in the last 12 months.
§ Mr. RedwoodIn addition to a wide range of ad hoc meetings with European Commission officials on specific policy issues, senior officials from the Welsh Office were present at meetings of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels in July, September, November and December 1992 and in January, February, March and May 1993. They also attended meetings of the Agriculture Council held in Luxembourg in October 1992 and April and June 1993, as well as the informal regional policy council held in June 1992 in Lisbon.
Officials have also been regular attendees at the meetings of the Objective 1/2 advisory committee, the structural actions working group, which is taking forward the work on the reform of the EC structural funds, and have attended, where necessary, meetings of the trans-European road network motorway working group, the DRIVE programme working groups, the STAR Advisory Committee on Rural Structures and Agricultural Development, and the VALUE II Management Committee.
They were present at the conference on the LEADER programme for rural areas held in October 1992, the conference on inter-regional co-operation held in December 1992, the seminar on article 10 initiatives held in April 1993 and the conference on objective 5b regions held in June 1993.
They accompanied the then Secretary of State to Brussels in December 1992 when he addressed the EC Economic and Social Committee's regional policy section, and again in April 1993 when he visited Brussels for meetings with key commissioners. They also accompanied the permanent secretary to Brussels in September 1992 when he met the director general of DG XVI as well as the head of the human resources task force and officials with responsibility for rural development policies.