HC Deb 06 July 1988 vol 136 cc598-9W
Mr. Page

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will report on the Internal Market Council held on 22 June.

Mr. Maude

The Council, at which my hon. Friend the Minister for Trade and I represented the United Kingdom, reached agreement on 15 individual measures which contribute towards completion of the single market. This has brought the total number of single market measures agreed under the German presidency to well over 50, thus maintaining the momentum we started under our presidency 18 months ago.

Important decisions reached by the Council included the adoption of a directive on non-life insurance services; a package of four directives relating to food law (on flavourings, materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuff;, food additives and quick-frozen foodstuffs) and the agreement on common positions on directives on the mutual recognition of higher education diplomas; on the pricing of pharmaceutical products; and on construction products under the Commission's "new approach" to technical harmonisation.

Those measures, together with other notable agreements reached over the last month—for example, on the liberalisation of capital movements and international road haulage—are a clear demonstration that barriers to trade in the Community are being cut, to the benefit of both business and the consumer.