HL Deb 11 November 1991 vol 532 cc17-8WA
Lord Swinfen

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the outcome of the Foreign Affairs Council on 4th November.

The Earl of Caithness

A meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council took place in Brussels on 4th November. The Secretary of State and the Minister of State For Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs represented the United Kingdom.

The council issued a statement reconfirming its commitment to a substantial, balanced and global conclusion of the Uruguay Round this year. It urged the Commission to make effective use of every opportunity to achieve progress in the negotiations. In particular the council drew attention to the need to make good use of the forthcoming EC/US Summit on 9th November to narrow differences between the EC and US in the interests of a successful completion of the round.

The council reviewed the situation in Yugoslavia and agreed a package of measures subject to a political decision by EC Ministers on 8th November. The measures comprise suspension of the EC/Yugoslavia's Trade and Co-operation Agreement and of Yugoslavia's inclusion in the EC's PHARE programme, and exclusion of Yugoslavia from the Generalised System of Preferences and from participation in ministerial meetings of the Group of 24. The council also agreed in principle that any restrictive measures towards Yugoslavia as a whole should be accompanied by positive measures towards those republics co-operating with the peace process. There was agreement in principle that the United Nations Security Council should be invited to examine measures to tighten the arms embargo and to consider an oil embargo.

The council discussed Cambodia in the light of the successful outcome of the Paris Conference and invited the Commission to make proposals on future Community relations.

The council reviewed the draft European Coal and Steel Community Protocol in the Association Agreement negotiations with Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland and decided to remit the question to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for further examination.

An EC/Jordan Co-operation Council took place after the Foreign Affairs Council. A lunch between EC and Arab Maghreb Union Foreign Ministers was held in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council. There was no agreement to any change to existing EC measures against Libya.