§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the question put by Lord Pearson of Rannoch in the Debate on the Address (H.L. Deb., 28th October, cols. 186-187), whether they will now say how many qualified majority votes, from which countries, they expect to support a sufficient reform of the common agricultural policy to allow other European nations to enter the Treaty of Rome on existing terms.
Lord LucasFew, if any, member states contest the European Commission's assertion that maintaining the status quo on the CAP is not sustainable and that further reform is therefore inevitable. The Council has called upon the Commission to take further analysis of the issues and also to bring forward in the first part of 1997 ideas for reform of the dairy and beef regimes. It is not possible, in the absence of specific proposals, to say which member states, if any, might choose not to support them.