Foreign Affairs Council (Hansard, 17 June 1993)

§ Mr. Hurd

My hon. Friend the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and I represented the United Kingdom at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 7 to 9 June.

At an inter-institutional meeting between the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on 7 June, no agreement was reached either on an inter-institutional agreement on subsidiarity or on a decision by the European Parliament on procedures for the ombudsman to be appointed by the Parliament. Both issues were blocked by the Parliament. Ministerial sessions of the accession negotiations with Norway, Austria, Sweden and Finland were held in the margins of the Council. These registered useful progress.

Ministers had a substantial discussion on former Yugoslavia. They reaffirmed the overriding importance of efforts to achieve a lasting and equitable peace in co-operation with the rest of the international community, their full support for Lord Owen and Mr. Stoltenberg in their contacts with the parties, and their commitment to the Vance/Owen peace plan. They agreed that measures contained in the joint action programme set out by the United States, France, Spain, Russia and the United 679W Kingdom on 22 May should be followed up: they will support the United Nations Secretary-General's efforts to attract further troops and funding to implement United Nations Security Council resolution 836 on safe areas. They called for an increase in the international presence in Kosovo and Macedonia to help pre-empt possible spillover of the conflict.

The Council heard a report by Sir Leon Brittan on recent developments related to the GATT Uruguay round negotiations. The French Foreign Minister presented his Government's recent memorandum setting out the French position on the round. The Council had a thorough exchange of views on both of these statements. We share the Commission's hope that it will be possible to agree the outline of an agreement on market access and services by the time of the economic summit in Tokyo in July.

The Council also approved the EC/United States oilseeds agreement, which was negotiated as part of the Blair House agriculture package last November.

Over lunch, Ministers discussed the humanitarian situation in northern Iraq, the continuing need for emergency aid, and the requirement for longer term development assistance. Ministers agreed the EC response to the establishment of the transitional executive council in South Africa. This will include the lifting of some of the remaining restrictions other than those related to the United Nations arms embargo, and the launch of the new EC development initiative. Sir Leon Brittan reported on his recent visit to Moscow.

In the afternoon, the Council discussed the Commission's paper for the Copenhagen European Council on strengthening relations with the central European associate countries.

The Council then discussed a Commission paper on openness access to information, summarising progress made since the Edinburgh European Council.

The Council discussed the revision of the regulations governing the EC structural funds. The Commission reaffirmed its inclusion of Merseyside and the highlands and islands of Scotland in its proposed list of objective 1 regions. The Minister of State argued for further regions in the United Kingdom to be added to the list of areas in the Community classified as objective 1. There was also discussion of how objective 2 and 5b areas should be determined. In the discussion of the proposed new objective 4, the United Kingdom reiterated its reserve of principle and argued against the diversion of European social fund money away from helping the long-term unemployed. The question of greater Council involvement in decisions relating to Community initiatives under the structural funds was also raised. It was agreed that an extraordinary General Affairs Council be held on 2 July to discuss these matters further.

The Danish presidency briefed the Council on its plans for the Copenhagen European Council. The main agenda items are likely to be economic growth and unemployment, the Community's relations with central and eastern Europe, the Community's relations with Russia, the progress of the enlargement negotiations, subsidiarity and the situation in the former Yugoslavia.

No formal votes were taken.