HC Deb 09 May 1990 vol 172 cc175-6W
37. Mr. Battle

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what issues will be raised at the next meeting of the European Community General Affairs Council.

50. Mr. Allen McKay

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what issues he expects to be discussed at the next meeting of the European Community General Affairs Council.

Mr. Maude

The Foreign Affairs Council on 18 and 19 June is likely to discuss, among other matters, political union, preparations for the European Council meeting on 25 and 26 June, European Community/EFTA relations, European Community-Eastern Europe and European Community policy towards the Mediterranean.

45. Mr. Darling

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the outcome of the last meeting of the European Community General Affairs Council; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Maude

The European Community Foreign Affairs Council met in Brussels on 7 May. I represented the United Kingdom at it, and at a meeting of the European Community-Cyprus Association Council which took place subsequently.

The Council adopted decisions on the European Training Foundation and the trans-European mobility scheme for university studies (TEMPUS) to extend the amount of help given by the Community to Poland and Hungary. It invited the Commission to start negotiations with Romania on a possible trade, commercial and economic co-operation agreement. Similar agreements with Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and the German Democratic Republic were signed. The Council also had a first discussion of possible G24 aid to Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia.

Ministers noted that all member states would lift their visa requirement for the German Democratic Republic, and agreed to keep their visa requirements for other eastern European countries, particularly Hungary and Czechoslovakia, under review.

The Council discussed preparations for the negotiations intended to extend the single market to EFTA countries.

Ministers discussed procedures for handling the remit from the Informal European Council on 28 April for an analysis of possible changes to the Community's institutions—"political union"—and the handling of the meeting on 17 May with the European Parliament to consider the inter-governmental conference on economic and monetary union, institutional aspects of which they also touched on briefly.