HC Deb 12 May 1986 vol 97 cc350-1W
Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why he agreed on behalf of Her Majesty's Government to a formal commitment to European union in the Single European Act; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Chalker

European union is mentioned only in the preamble to the Single European Act. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister agreed to the text since it recalls the commitment which member states entered into in the Stuttgart declaration of 19 June 1983. The declaration stated: European Union is being achieved by deepening and broadening the scope of European activities so that they coherently cover, albeit on a variety of legal bases, a growing proportion of member states' mutual relations and of their external relations".