§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the United Kingdom has expressed any interest in joining the HELIOS II programme, concerned with intelligence satellites, in which other European governments have already expressed an intention to take part; whether arrangements with the United States of America preclude their expressing any interest in participation in this programme; and if not whether they will now express such an interest and inform themselves about the programme.
Earl HoweHELIOS II is a French programme which is to be pursued collaboratively with Germany, following the Franco-German summit earlier this month. There has been no suggestion of UK participation. But the UK will continue to take part in work in the Western European Union to assess the conditions under which WEU might participate in a multinational satellite programme. It will be for the nations concerned to consider whether they wish to make an offer of WEU participation in HELIOS II; if such an offer were to be made, the UK would consider it with her partners on its merits, and would not be precluded from doing so by any arrangements with the United States.