§ Mr. William Powellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the meeting of the European Community Finance Council in Brussels on 9 July.
§ Mr. LawsonI represented the United Kingdom at this Council which was the first under the Irish presidency.
The Council agreed that work should be urgently undertaken, for consideration by the next Council in September, on the detailed measures to give effect to the system of stricter budgetary discipline provisionally agreed at the March European Council in Brussels and endorsed at Fontainebleau. It also gave a positive opinion on the Commission's proposal to transfer the 1983 United Kingdom refunds provision from chapter 100 to the relevant 1984 budget lines.
Ministers approved the second tranche of 1.4 billion ecu (about £832 million) of the new Community instrument facility. They also reviewed the economic situation in the Community; and discussed fiscal measures to encourage co-operation between undertakings in different member states, and the 14th VAT directive.