Western European Union (Hansard, 29 February 1988)

§ Mr. Hill
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union will take place; and what guidelines are to be discussed on co-location and the future work of the Western European Union.

§ Mr. Eggar
The next ministerial Council of the Western European Union will take place in the Hague on 18–19 April. Our approach to the issue of co-location remains as set out in my right hon. and learned Friend's reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Mr. Hill) on 5 November 1987. The meeting will consider how to implement the platform on European security interests which was adopted at the last ministerial meeting.

§ Mr. Hill
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what actions have been taken and what statements have been made, by the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union, in response to the exchange of views on European security between the presidential committee of the Western European Union and the committee of the supreme soviet of the Soviet Union in Moscow; and what proposals there are to further these exchanges of views in Paris.

§ Mr. Eggar
The visit to Moscow in April 1987 by a delegation from the Western European Union Assembly was not discussed by the Western European Union ministerial Council at its meetings in that month or in October. It is for the Assembly itself, not for the Governments of WEU member states, to decide whether and how to pursue the contacts made during it.

§ Mr. Hill
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the role of the Western European Union, in the light of changing nuclear defence policy, and on the part it has to play in the verification processes.

§ Mr. Eggar
There is no change in our nuclear defence policy, nor in that of the North Atlantic Alliance. The Western European Union does not have a role to play in verification of nuclear arms control agreements reached between the United States and the Soviet Union.