§ Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Prime Minister if she will raise at the next meeting of the European Council the cost of the common agricultural policy; and if she will make a statement.
§ The Prime MinisterThe United Kingdom has taken the lead in EC budgetary reform. I have no plans to raise the cost of the common agricultural policy at the next European Council.
§ Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Prime Minister what issues she intends to raise at the next meeting of the European Council.
§ The Prime MinisterI expect discussion of a range of issues, including eastern Europe, the single market, economic and monetary union and the social charter.
§ Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Prime Minister if she will raise at the next meeting of the European Council the degree of progress made in the implementing of free trade within the European Economic Community; and if she will make a statement.
§ The Prime MinisterIn the context of the single market programme, considerable progress has been made on breaking down the barriers to free trade within the European Community: 147 single market measures have now been agreed. This means the community is about halfway through the programme set out in the Commission's White Paper, "Completing the internal market". At the meeting of the European Council in Strasbourg I shall be urging that the momentum on the single market programme be kept up, and that the Community should not allow itself to be distracted from this important goal.