Foreign Affairs Council (Hansard, 26 January 1983)

§ Mr. Pym

At the Foreign Affairs Council which met in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday of this week, I and my right hon. Friend the Minister of State represented the United Kingdom.

The Council had a preliminary discussion of the Commission's proposals for a 1983 supplementary and amending budget, including provision for the United Kingdom's 1982 refunds. The Council agreed on a declaration that it shared the Commission's objective of a Community solution to the budgetary problems and hoped that the necessary decisions would be taken as soon as possible by the competent institutions of the Community. The proposals are being considered further by today's Budget Council.

There was a further discussion of the European Parliament's proposals for a uniform electoral system. It was generally recognised that difficult problems remain to be resolved which make it unlikely that agreement on a uniform system could be reached in time for the 1984 elections to the European Parliament. It was agreed, however, that the Council should continue its efforts to reach agreement on ways of extending the franchise to nationals of member states residing in other member states.

On the negotiations for Portuguese accession, the Council agreed declarations on agriculture, social affairs, customs union and ECSC which were presented to the Portuguese at a ministerial conference in the margins of the Council. In connection with Spanish accession a declaration on external relations was also agreed for future presentation to the Spaniards.

Ministers discussed a Commission proposal for an aid project for the Lebanon, which was remitted to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for urgent examination.

The Council continued discussion of the new regulations for energy demonstration projects and had an exchange of views about the level of finance that would be appropriate.

Ministers recognised the importance of the forthcoming UNCTAD VI meeting which is due to take place in Belgrade in June and of the need for sound Community preparation. We will no doubt return to this subject at a future date.

Under other business the Italian Foreign Minister announced that the Italian Government intended to organise a ministerial conference on "Hunger in the World" before the end of the year as a follow-up to the official level conference held in Rome in the autumn of 1982.

£m cash	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82
Motorways	16.0	20.8	22.5	33.1	52.3	64.3	97.1
Trunk roads	33.2	35.8	37.6	47.5	49.2	47.6	72.7
Lighting and other	3.8	5.4	6.2	6.3	6.8	7.0	9.6
Total	53.0	62.0	66.3	86.9	108.3	118.9	179.4

Lighting and a small number of miscellaneous items cannot be disaggregated between motorway and other trunk roads. Capital expenditure on winter maintenance vehicles is excluded.

468W

On the evening of 24 January the Council held a meeting with the enlarged Bureau of the European Parliament. The meeting discussed the Genscher-Colombo proposals, the relationship between the Parliament and the Council, the position reached on the uniform electoral procedure and problems over the budget.

On Tuesday the Commission gave a brief report to the Council on its recent contacts with the Japanese. It was agreed to postpone substantive discussion until February.

A Commission proposal to open negotiations on tariffs on certain digital audio equipment was also discussed and was remitted to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for further consideration.

The Council made progress in agreeing ways of reinforcing the steel anti-crisis measures, particularly in extending their scope and it tightening monitoring procedures. Ministers also authorised the Commission to hold exploratory talks with the United States about the countervailing case brought against the United Kingdom exports of stainless steel to the United States.

Finally, the Commission gave an interim report to the Council about its talks with the Spaniards on the implementation of the European Community—Spain 1970 agreement and on the imbalance of trading opportunities.