HC Deb 08 November 1991 vol 198 cc311-2W
Mr. David Evans

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Internal Market Council held in Brussels on Thursday 7 November.

Mr. Redwood

I attended the Internal Market Council on 7 November. The Council reviewed progress towards completion of the single market measures. The United Kingdom asked for faster progress on measures relating to the food industry and was promised by the Commissioner that 10 draft directives and amendments to directives covering issues like colorants, additives and food hygiene would be brought before the council over the next six months. The Council noted the Commission's review of implementation which praised the United Kingdom, Denmark and some other countries for their good implementation record, but which asked Italy to speed up implementation of a large number of outstanding measures.

The Council failed to agree on the three outstanding vehicle type approval draft directives which would complete the set of 44 directives needed to allow whole vehicle type approval under Community rules. There was a majority around the table in favour of the directives, but France, Italy and Spain blocked progress at the meeting because they are unhappy with the arrangements related to implementation of the agreement on Japanese car imports into the Community. The Commission, the United Kingdom and other countries in the majority urged the manufacturers' case for these type approvals. It was hoped that the problem could be resolved by the December Internal Market Council.

The Council expressed interest in a presidency/United Kingdom suggestion of a means of making progress on the draft irradiation directive and remitted the suggested outline compromise position from the presidency and the United Kingdom to a working party.

The Council confirmed a common position on the Impact 2 technology programme following its substantial amendment in recent months. The United Kingdom made a statement saying that it was very important that moneys in this programme were not used in a way which damaged competitive technologies and companies operating commercially in the marketplace.

Much of the time of the Council was given over to the draft sweeteners directive. A common position was finally agreed using a Commission compromise which allows Germany to ban the use of sweeteners in domestically brewed traditional beers while creating common rules for other food and drink products in the Community regulating the proportion of sweetener that can be included in their production. The United Kingdom had to defend the position of the low and no alcohol beer industry in the United Kingdom which uses sweeteners as the French proposed an amendment which would have banned the use of sweeteners in all such beers. Support for the presidency compromise eventually materialised which protected the United Kingdom interest as well as the German.

There was no substantial discussion on a draft proposal for a pension funds directive which is broadly satisfactory from a United Kingdom point of view, and there was agreement that the European Parliament was behaving unreasonably in withholding its opinion on the insurance directive in protest against the lack of progress on social legislation in the Council.