EU Information Offices (Hansard, 17 March 1997)

§ Mr. David Davis

Except as noted below, European Commission offices in third countries take the form either of delegations, in countries outside the EU, or representations, in the member states. There are 128 delegations and 23 representations. Most of these 151 posts have some capacity for information activity, though the proportion of this activity to other elements of the posts' work varies, but only in Washington, New York and Tokyo do the delegations' information sections have the title information offices.

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In addition, there are 32 EU business centres in Asia and Latin America, whose purpose is to promote trade between the EU and the country concerned; and 250 Euro-Info correspondence centres in the European Economic Area, central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean area, whose purpose is to act as a link between small and medium-size businesses in the EU and third countries. EBCs and EICCs are not freestanding offices, and are normally run as part of local trade promotion organisations such as chambers of commerce, with which they are generally co-located.

There is no figure readily available showing the disaggregated running costs of the Commission's information activities overseas, but in 1996 the total budget for the running costs of Commission delegations outside the EU was £152 million. Running costs for the four Commission representation offices in the UK were £1.3 million

I gave my right hon. Friend details of the overall budget for all EU information and communication activities in 1997 in my separate answer of 3 March, Official Report, column 484.

In Council discussions of the Commission's budget, we always underline the need for the utmost rigour in all expenditure, including information activity. In recent years, the Council has regularly reduced the relevant budget allocation, but the European Parliament has restored it.