Foreign Affairs Council (Hansard, 16 June 1988)

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe

I attended the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 13 and 14 June, accompanied by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, and my hon. Friend the Minister for Overseas Development. On 13 June I also took part in a discussion of European political co-operation issues.

Much of our work concerned relations with Eastern Europe. In the framework of political co-operation, we issued a statement on East-West relations welcoming recent encouraging developments and urging East European countries to approach the final phase of the CSCE negotiations in Vienna in a constructive spirit.

In the Council we agreed to the signature on 25 June of an EEC-CMEA joint declaration, which provides a framework for co-operation in appropriate fields. The Council also discussed the Community's negotiations with Hungary for a trade and co-operation agreement, and agreed on a new compromise proposal, suggested by the United Kingdom, on the timing of abolition of quantitative restrictions. I hope that this will lead to the early conclusion of the agreement.

In the framework of political co-operation we discussed the middle east, Afghanistan, Latin America and South Africa. We issued a statement of support for Lebanon, where presidential elections due this summer will be of great importance for the future of the country, and a brief statement reiterating our concern about the fate of the Sharpeville Six. Copies of the statements will be placed in the Library of the House. On Afghanistan, we agreed that both the European Community and the member states individually should make a significant aid contribution to help the return of refugees and the reconstruction of an independent. non-aligned Afghanistan. We agreed that there was cause for concern at the loss of momentum in the Central American peace process, but reaffirmed our full support for it and for democratisation in Latin America.

In the Council we had a useful first discussion of the forthcoming renegotiation of the EEC/ACP (Lomé) convention. The Council agreed that the next elections to the European Parliament should take place between 15 and 18 June 1989. It also considered the jurisdiction and 216W composition of the court of first instance, and Ministers, meeting as a conference of representatives of the member states, discussed the nomination of judges and advocates-general to the European Court of Justice. Both questions were remitted for further work. The Irish Foreign Minister and I briefed the Council on a proposal for an EC contribution to the International Fund for Ireland. This important initiative was welcomed by the other Foreign Ministers.

Finally, the Council reached agreement on the legal texts implementing the conclusions of the Brussels European Council on the future financing of the Community. These texts will be formally adopted once the European Parliament has given its opinion.

We are thus now close to completing the key task of translating the major political agreements reached in February into the binding legal form on which the United Kingdom has insisted throughout these lengthy and successful negotiations.