EU Foreign Affairs Council (Hansard, 25 May 1994)

§ Mr. Hurd

I attended the Foreign Affairs Council on 16–17 May.

The Council took the formal decision—by unanimity —to admit Norway, Austria, Finland and Sweden to the Union. The treaty of accession will now be signed at the European Council on 24 June.

President Delors presented a short paper describing progress on the follow-up to the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment. He noted that recent economic news in the Community was encouraging; drew attention to efforts to improve the functioning of the 187W internal market; highlighted progress on identifying priority transEuropean network projects; and noted that work was continuing on the audit of selected pieces of legislation for their effects on employment.

In the discussion that followed, I and others emphasised the importance of deregulation and of completing the single market, especially in areas such as transport, energy and telecommunications.

The Council reviewed progress in the negotiations towards a partnership and co-operation agreement with Russia.

The Council agreed that the EU's partnership and co-operation agreement with Ukraine would be signed in June, and had a first discussion of Commission proposals on further ways to enhance the EU/Ukraine relationship.

The Council agreed unanimously a Commission proposal to resolve a dispute between the EC and Chile over Chilean apple exports to the EC.

The Council considered a Commission report on relations with Switzerland. It asked the Commission to bring forward as soon as possible mandates for negotiations on research, free movement of people, trade in agricultural goods, public procurement and technical barriers to trade. On transport, the Council asked the Commission to seek urgent clarification from the Swiss on how the Swiss people's recent vote to ban the transit of heavy goods vehicles would be implemented.

The Council discussed recent developments in the peace negotiations on former Yugoslavia. It agreed unanimously to extend the joint action on humanitarian aid to Bosnia and to apply part of the resources for this to the EU administration in Mostar. The Council had a short discussion of the situation in Algeria and the possibilities for Community assistance. It issued the statement on Rwanda which appears at the end of this answer. The Commission also indicated that it would shortly propose an interim agreement between the EU and South Africa.

The Council adopted by concensus a code of conduct for continuing multilateral negotiations on trade in certain service sectors, where agreement could not be reached by the conclusion of the Uruguay round. This will enable the Community to participate effectively in the continuing GATT negotiations on services.

The Council agreed the draft conclusions for the launch conference of the stability pact in Paris on 26–27 May and discussed prospects for the conference.

The Council discussed a compromise text aimed at unblocking the negotiations on an energy charter treaty.

At the request of the Danish Government, the Council discussed the operation of its openness policy. It asked officials to consider whether existing procedures for handling applications for documents needed amending, and to make recommendations to the Council. The Council agreed to reject the application by the Guardian newspaper for a number of Council documents. Denmark and the Netherlands voted against.

The Secretary General of the Council urged member states to take a flexible approach on the protection of classified information under titles V and VI of the Maastricht treaty. The Council referred the matter to COREPER.

The Council agreed that informal contacts with the European Parliament on titles V and VI should continue, but that decisions would have to await the election of the new Parliament.

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A co-operation council with Egypt and the first meeting of the European Economic Area Agreement Council took place in the margins.