HC Deb 13 May 1986 vol 97 cc446-7W
Mr. Deakins

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what reasons the EEC Commission gave for declining the Council's request to provide details of the overall budgetary effects of the European monetary system realignment for items other than common agricultural policy expenditure; if the Council will now require the Commission to provide this information; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Brooke

The Commission did not explain why it would not give estimates of the overall budgetary effects of the EMS realignment, though the calculations are not straightforward, and there are particular difficulties in distinguishing the effects of the realignment itself from conjunctural factors. The Commission has said that it expects further discussion of this question when the 1986 preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget is put forward. The Council is not in a position to require the Commission to produce estimates.