§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the outcome of the EEC Council of Energy Ministers on 4 December.
§ Mr. David HowellThe EEC Council of Energy Ministers on 4 December discussed a proposal to increase the rate of aid under the Community's existing scheme of support for intra-Community trade in coking coal during the scheme's remaining two years. This increase would 635W be financed by increasing the contributions paid by the original six member States. A majority of member States including the United Kingdom were in favour of this proposal, which will be considered further by a future Council.
The Council also considered the proposed breakdown into national targets of the Community's net oil import objective, agreed in Strasbourg, of 472 million tonnes in 1980. Agreement was reached on the figures proposed, including for the United Kingdom the net oil import target of 12 million tonnes for 1980. Member States also agreed the principles of arrangements for monitoring the adequacy of national policies to achieve the oil import targets, leaving to individual countries the definition of concrete measures. Some member States suggested that, in the event of oil supply difficulties, production of North Sea oil should be adjusted and allocated as a priority to meet Community needs. For our part, the United Kingdom pointed out that this suggestion was not feasible, that crisis machinery already existed in the IEA and the Community to help with supply difficulties when the crisis trigger level was reached, and that North Sea oil was already making a major contribution to the supplies of our Community partners—in the first nine months of this year our EEC partners received over half of all North Sea oil exports, which was nearly a third of total production.