§ Mr. Spearingasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the present procedure for defining the unit of account of the European Communities; what changes, if any, are envisaged in such procedures; and by what means will any such proposals be placed before Parliament.
§ Mr. Joel Barnett, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st December 1975: Vol. 901, c. 480.], gave the following in formation:
There are a number of procedures for defining the different units of account used in the European Communities: some are defined in the Treaty documents, some by Council regulation and some by administrative act. The only current proposal for change is for amendments to the statutes of the European Investment Bank to enable the Governors of the Bank, acting unanimously, to alter the definition of the Bank's unit of account. These amendments were published as a White Paper (Cmnd. 6253) and they will come before both Houses very shortly as
GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON INVESTMENT INCENTIVES Financial Years Regional Development Grants Investment Grants Section 7 Industry Act 1972 Section 8 Industry Act 1972 Industrial Investment Schemes 1967–68 … … — 288 — — — 1968–69 … … — 437 — — 23 1969–70 … … — 544 — — 13 1970–71 … … — 540 — — 15 1971–72 … … — 461 — — 12 1972–73 … … 8 295 Below 0.1 9 8 1973–74 … … 89 191 25 16 4 1974–75 … … 192 101 40 26 — Note: The figures exclude public corporations and any repayments.
568WDespite these problems, as a special exercise an attempt has been made to construct a broad estimate of the probable size of the United Kingdom's invisible surplus with Japan. The results are shown in the table below. They should be interpreted with considerable caution as giving only an indication of the order of magnitude likely to be involved.
the European Communities Definition of Treaties Order: No. 3 1975. Where there are proposals for changes in the definitions of the units of account themselves we would expect to keep Parliament in touch as appropriate through the established procedure of depositing draft EEC secondary legislation.