§ Lord O'HAGANasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much (expressed in percentage) each Member State's currency has deviated from its "green" equivalent between 1st January 1973 and the date on which this question is answered.
§ Lord STRABOLGI"Green currencies" are rates used for conversions between amounts expressed in units of account in Community agricultural arrangements and national currencies. The three new Member States were not applying the Community's agricultural arrangements on 1st January 1973; there were therefore no green rates in operation for them at that date. At that time the green rates for the six original Member States were, in all cases, the parity for their currency against the US dollar as declared to the International Monetary Fund. Since then the green rates for all nine Member States have been altered and, on 4th June 1973 the definition of the unit of account for agricultural purposes was also changed. In these circumstances the most clear and meaningful way of expressing the deviation of a market exchange rate from green conversion rates is to give a list of these rates and the resulting monetary compensatory amount percentages on a number of dates. This is given today in another reply to the noble Lord.