§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to treat the proposed EC directive laying down minimum standards for keeping animals in zoos as a priority during the United Kingdom presidency of the European Community.
§ Mr. MacleanAfter taking informal soundings within the Community, we announced our support in principle for the proposed zoos directive earlier this year. More recently however, it has become clear that a number of other member states would not support the current proposals, not least because of concerns about subsidiarity. In view of this, and the pressures on our programme for the United Kingdom presidency, we have concluded that the directive should not be one of our priorities.